Travel Secrets: Second
by E4mj
Summary: Yr 2: Harry has returned in time after one too many things went wrong, his careful plans have been messed up, so he's trying a few new things. He's searching for the diary, but while things are similar, his presence has altered enough to keep him on his toes! No pairings. Dumbledore/Goodguys bashing. 2nd in series. Rated M because I'm paranoid. Everything belongs to Jo!
1. Chapter 1

**AN:** If you haven't read 'Travel Secrets: First' then you will probably be a bit lost, and might have missed some important things... like the whole premise :p

**ONE**

_Dear Master Flamel,_

_I collected your stone at the end of the Hogwarts year, and have it with me now in a safe location. I wish to return it to you as soon as possible, as I am sure you are worried about it. I do, however wish to ensure that it is well protected. I don't know if you heard, but at the end of the last school year there were rumors going around Hogwarts that Harry Potter was attacked by a certain Dark Lord for the second time. I am unsure if these are true, however as the stone was so badly protected the last time, I am a little wary._

_To ensure the return of your stone (I am doing my best not to make this sound like Blackmail, but I guess in a way it is – however I _will_ continue to send the elixir _regardless_ of all else):_

_You must swear an oath not to let Albus Dumbledore be in any way involved in the stone's safety._

_You must convince me that your protections will be satisfactory._

_You must swear an oath not to take retribution or legal action if we meet to exchange the stone (I have attached a legal gob-doc-form to be filed with Gringotts before a meeting will be arranged). I understand that I stole your property, however technically I just collected an object from around Hogwarts. It was in a place where I dwelled, not a fortified safe. I really did just want to ensure the safety of the stone._

_Upon our first meeting I wish for an unbreakable vow not to reveal my identity without my permission. You are welcome to offer opinions on the wording, but I am afraid it will be necessary in exchange for the stone._

_I am most sorry for the inconvenience I have caused, and I hope your holidays were otherwise well,_

_Yours sincerely,_

_Thief._

Harry Potter sighed and put down the quill stretching out his wrist. This was his ninth draft of the letter, and it _still_ sounded too much like blackmail. It really wasn't his aim, however he wasn't about to let that stop him from making demands on the stone's safety. Now that it wasn't destroyed, Voldemort may wish to obtain it again; something that Harry very much wanted to avoid. With a final sigh he moved over to Hadwin's cage.

'Can you take a letter for me Hadwin?'

Hadwin puffed up his feathers and gave Harry a bit of a glare.

'Of course you can.' Harry grinned, 'I didn't mean to offend.'

With a quiet laugh Harry ran his finger along the bottom of the cage, unclipping the bottom and lifting the top away. When he had bought the cage he had made sure to buy one that had a bottom that easily came loose for cleaning, but wasn't obvious in that fact. Uncle Vernon still thought that Hadwin was locked up.

Harry attached the note and sent it to Gringotts, requesting the goblin document to be added, and both letters to be sent on anonymously to Nicolas Flamel. He added a five-galleon tip in the note, knowing that would ensure his privacy.

Harry made his way over to the window and let Hadwin out.

The Dursley's were wary of Harry, as Dumbledore had (ever so kindly) sent them a letter to let them know he wouldn't be able to do magic over the holidays. Harry was still, four days later, seething over this, however unfortunately for Dumbledore (and the Dursleys) Harry had anticipated trouble, and was prepared. He brought home an empty, but locked, trunk from the room of requirement home in replacement of his own, while his real trunk was shrunk in his pocket on a timer. His empty trunk was locked away in the cupboard under the stairs, and his proper one was sitting under his bed full and under his invisibility cloak.

Hadwin's cage had three padlocks on it, however the bottom was easily removed, and Harry was extra careful only to let him out late at night, and had instructed him to wait to return only at night as well. Fortunately Hadwin was a much quieter owl than Hedwig as well.

And finally, Harry had gone to see the house elves a few days before the end of term and explained he wouldn't be fed properly for the first part of the holidays and could he please have some food to take home with him. They had been delighted, more than usual, as he was 'their most favorite Haree'. Due to his house stopping him from eating at the Slytherin table for the majority of the year, Harry had spent a great deal of time in the kitchens, and the elves had taken a strong liking to him. He had even taught them his secret triple chocolate and dirigble plum mud cake recipe, although he had to send a request to Xeno Lovegood for the ingredients at the time. With such favoritism, Harry was almost certain he could be locked in his room until he came of age before he ran out of the food packages the elves had packed him.

All in all, despite his original doubts, his holidays had actually been quite enjoyable so far. He was even still allowed outside his room to do the gardening for a few hours in the morning as good behavior bond (having not shown any sign of anything outside of the ordinary in public– and also, Harry suspected, for doing _such a good job_ of acting when Mrs. Number Six stuck her nose over the fence when Harry arrived). The weirdest thing about summer however, was that Dudley seemed, while cautious, a little curious about Harry's school. It was hidden under a lot of bluster and insults, but he had actually mentioned magic _twice_, and when Piers came over, had even gotten the boy to back down on attacking Harry. Harry had almost cut his finger off in shock, instead of the dead branches he was pruning, and had had a coughing fit that lasted until Piers' older brother took pity and handed him his drink bottle. This, as it turned out, would be Harry's ticket out of there. While Patrick Polkiss had been whacking Harry on the back, Harry had managed to stumble and 'get caught' taking a few of Patrick's hairs with him.

The main reason that his holidays were going so well wasn't having his trunk or freeing Hadwin, it was potions. Fully aware of just what to expect, Harry had spent a good portion of the last month of school locked up in the room of requirement brewing all sorts of potions to make his holidays run smoothly. He had pranking potions (and their counters), healing, aging, polyjuice, dreamless sleep, confounding, and poisonous potions (although the last was only for defence if absolutely life-or-death desperate. The first day Vernon had been gleeful, rubbing it in Harry's face that he couldn't do magic and was helpless. The next day all three Dursleys had woken up to find their skin to be fluro green. Harry had calmly pointed out that there were ways around the law, and that he would be having the mornings outside, if the Dursley's wished for a peaceable summer. Apparently they had done, and since then Harry and his relatives had pretty much let each other be.

Right at this moment, Harry was taking advantage of the polyjuice. He had checked the wards the morning before, and they were already fully charged. Harry suspected it was because he held no ill will towards the Dursleys now he wasn't in the least bit threatened by them, and because he had stuck up for Dudley when Hagrid was going to give him a pigs tail. Both Petunia and Dudley seemed much less aggressive than Harry remembered, and the slightly better relations with the Evans bloodline was doing wonders for the wards. Harry suspected they had actually charged fully by the first day, he just hadn't checked them then because he had expected it to take a minimum of six days.

With the wards fully charged, enough for another years protection, Harry had packed up all of his things and was leaving tonight. He left a note for Petunia with explicit directions not to inform Dumbledore that he was gone, and instructions to _mention_ to Mrs. Figgs that he was still around, just out of sight. Letting his Aunt Petunia know about Mrs. Figgs was a calculated risk, however he was sure that Petunia would be too happy that he was gone to complain overly.

'Bottom's up.'

Harry placed Patrick's hair in the serve of polyjuice, then swallowed it down with a grimace. After a few less than pleasant moments, Harry uncurled himself off the bed, and went to look at himself in the broken mirror on the inside of his wardrobe.

.:You could have warned me. I wasn't expecting to be suddenly wrapped around an expanding chest:. Apep grumbled. Harry just laughed.

A tall muscled blond stared back at him grinning. A quick bit of lock-picking later, and Harry was down through the kitchen, dropping off his note, and out the back door. Once he was outside he cut behind the garage and through the back yard of Petunia's rival Mrs. Tall, and out onto Hickory terrace. He cut across the playground, then through the school before he finally pulled out his wand and summoned the knight bus.

'Welcome to the knight bus. Emergency transport for the standard witch or wizard, just stick out your wand, step on board and we can take you anywhere you want to go. My name is Stan Shunpike, and I will be your conductor for this evening.'

Harry grinned as Stan read off his card in a monotone that spoke of numerous repititions.

'One way to Briggs Emporium please.'

Stan dropped the formal tone and grabbed Harry's trunk.

'Eleven sickles, that'll be. Unless 'choo want a 'ot chocolate, in which case it'll be firteen, or for fifteen you get an 'ot-water bottle an' a toofbrush in the colour of your choice.'

Harry dug out the sickles. 'Just the trip please. Unless you have a newspaper?'

'Five knuts.'

Harry handed those over as well, but folded the newspaper and slid it into his trunk. He took a bed close to the front and made sure to take his feet off the floor (best let the bed move around to compensate – there were cushioning charms on the walls, but only against inanimate objects. If you were sitting or lying on the bed you were fine, but if you were standing you'd hit the wall _hard_).

'Take him away Earn.' Stan yelled, giving Harry an odd look. It took Harry several minutes to realise Stan Shunpike was _checking him out_! He quickly buried himself in the newspaper, trying not to feel too bad for Patrick's body.

By the time they reached London Harry had almost read the entire newspaper. After a few attempts at hitting on Harry, Stan had given in and just rambled on about each of the customers that were traveling that night. Apparently Jessica Greengrass of the Harpies had been on a trip to Dover earlier in the night to see her brother (who Harry was relatively sure was Daphne's father), Leander Tribbs had been to the Cribbles again (Harry didn't know who that was, nor what exactly a Cribbles was), the Robbston brats had been causing chaos again (Harry had a vague recollection of dealing with the three siblings as an Auror – they were known for setting off fireworks inside buildings), and Muriel Prewitt had been to do the shopping again and had dropped a carton of eggs and hadn't even had the decency to use a scourgify!

Stepping off the knight bus was a bit of a relief, as was honestly being able to tell Stan that he didn't have a floo address to leave with him.

Briggs Emporium was not an Emporium at all, but a small diner, which led on to the back entrance to knockturn alley through their kitchens. The knight bus could actually hop straight in to the alley, but who got on and off at the stop was usually under careful surveillance by the ministry, while Briggs Emporium and Lonely street (an entrance through a strip club) weren't watched at all.

Knockturn alley was not at all what Harry had thought it was at age twelve. The first time he had gone there after the war had been a bit of a shock. There _were_ a lot of darker items sold, and the seedier characters were much more likely to hang around, however the real reason that knockturn alley was considered dark was because it was part of a district held under lease by the dark creatures council. Predominantly existing of Vampires, knockturn alley and the four smaller alley's that branched off it had been leased by the council since the Black Plague had run through London and the ministry had been forced to sign a two thousand year lease in order to pay the Vampires to clear out London's dead and get antidotes in. The plague hadn't effected the Vampires at all, while witches and wizards had had to go on lockdown.

Actually, if you ignored Borgin and Burkes (whom Harry only didn't like because they was on such good terms with Voldemort – or, Tom Riddle), Harry actually loved the alley. He often visited the nightclubs there, and had stayed at Msaw Ætare more times than he could remember. Dalvin was an Icelandic chef who had been running the small café/pub/bed and breakfast for almost fifty years.

After getting a few odd looks for dragging his trunk through Briggs Emporium, Harry made his way down the alley and checked in to Msaw for the rest of the summer. He only just made it back to his room as the hour was up, and simply locked the door letting the polyjuice wear off, and collapsed on the bed asleep.

The next morning (almost afternoon, as Harry got in at 3am, and slept until 11.30) Harry took another dose of the polyjuice, but set out to get a more convenient disguise. As amusing as it would be, to let Harry Potter travel around knockturn alley all summer, it wasn't really a suitable location for a twelve year old, and Harry had no intention of letting either the ministry or Dumbledore know he wasn't at his relatives. Fortunately, as long as he remembered to be somewhere close to Privet Drive on August 19th when the Hogwarts letter came out, the ministry had no way of tracking him, and Dumbledore's devices were all based on the wards, and could only detect if the wards were failing (due to time spent away, or magic spent in anger) or if both Harry Petunia decided verbally that it wasn't considered his home.

The first business of the day was a small barber shop aptly named _Beard Trimming_. Joe was a simple minded man, who had an amazing way with a pair of scissors. Unfortunately like everywhere else, Harry couldn't be seen in his true form, so he was only picking up some hair mousse that would ensure that his untamable mop lay flat. Harry actually liked his spiky hair (even now, when it reminded him of James Potter), but Harris Noir wasn't going to have Potter hair. With his hood drawn, Harry bought the mousse and headed down one of the side alleys. There were a few medical shops along here for those who didn't want to go to St. Mungo's; a medicinal potions supplier, a chiropractor (owned by a muggleborn and scoffed at by the pure bloods at first, until one of them tried it… after which it became _very_ popular. With the aid of magic the spinal fix was permanent), a blood bank (for the vampire's rather than medicinal) and an optometrist. It was the optometrist Harry was after. Harry had been Twenty-five when Daphne Greengrass had demanded to know why he insisted on keeping his glasses. Harry had never noticed, but he was actually the only person he knew in the wizarding world under the age of ninety who wore glasses. Even then, those who did usually wore them because they had some sort of charm (like Arthur Weasleys who's glasses showed any item with plastic in it with a slight glow, to help him identify muggle made items).

The process of fixing his eyes took a mere week of potions twice daily to fix his sight forever. Something Harry wished to start immediately. Harry felt exceedingly guilty as after collecting (and paying for) the potions from the front desk, he obliviated both the healer and the receptionist, and stole his file. It wasn't something Harry felt comfortable doing, but his next stop was out into the muggle world to an optometrist there, where Harry collected a pair of plain-glass fake glasses, and a set of coloured contact lenses. The world would (for now) see his glasses as a weakness, and while Harry could use being able to see without them as a surprise advantage he would.

A quick stop in the bathroom of a Macdonalds and Harry Potter lost the glasses, changed to brown eyes, hair flattened to a completely tamed style, covered his scar with make-up… and Harris Noir made his way out back across London and into knockturn alley. He was at a bit of a disadvantage, still looking like a small child, however letting off a tangible dark aura soon had the dwellers swerving to avoid him rather than taking advantage, probably assuming he was a vampire or dark elf. It was a bit of a superman disguise, but Harry actually looked a lot more like his mother than his father, it was just no one could see past the glasses and the Potter hair. Even his hair was actually a lot darker than James Potter's, but it did stick up every which way, and there was no doubting the resemblance.

After Harry killed Voldemort for the second (and more lasting) time, his popularity naturally sky rocketed. Leaving school and living in the magical community had thrust Harry into social circuits far more than he would have liked, but after a few misdemeanors on the front page of the prophet (his and Ginny's break-up for example) Harry had finally started to get a hang of being a celebrity, and learnt a few hard lessons and the tricks to the trade. One of his best tricks was altering his magical signature. Most wizards couldn't manage to alter their signature as most people had a propensity towards either light or dark magic. One of the few perks of having someone else's soul hanging around in your forehead for so long is that Harry's body had developed _both_ light and dark magic's which, like parseltongue, stuck around even after Voldemort's horcrux was gone. This gave Harry a huge advantage in quite a few obscure fields. Magical signature altering was one of them, and it was Harry's most useful trick for avoiding fans… or overly enthusiastic house elves.

Harry Potter's magical signature could be discovered by looking up the register in Ollivanders wand shop. It wasn't accessible to wizards except through an official legal trial, however it was accessible to house elves. Harry had always wondered how Dobby found him at the Dursleys, and had found out at age twenty-three when a crazy fan girl had her house-elf stalk him for a month. Harris Noir didn't have a registered wand, and therefore his signature wasn't registered. Even if it were, with the amount of darker magic Harry was pushing in to it in order to keep unfriendlies away from a child alone in knockturn, it wouldn't be recognizable as Harry Potter. Over the next few weeks Harry spotted various house elves with their masters (much more common in knockturn) and idly wondered whether Dobby was freaking out about not being able to find Harry Potter. Living as an anonymous suited Harry however, and he wasn't about to give it up to sooth even Dobby. Besides, as much as he loved the little guy, and was looking forward to meeting him again, he would prefer to meet him _after_ Dobby promised not to try and save his life. The fact that he wasn't getting any mail didn't bother Harry in the slightest as he assumed that the Slytherins were still annoyed at him from losing the house cup at the end of the previous year, and so wasn't expecting any.

Due to his annual clash with Voldemort, Harry had spent the last night at Hogwarts in the infirmary, and had spent the majority of the train journey sleeping it off as well. He had seen Theo and Blaise briefly, and they had seemed to be on his side of things, the three of them spending an enjoyable half-hour insulting Dumbledore. Both boys had suggested they would write, and Harry had sent a short letter to each, but he had actually forgotten about Dobby taking his mail the first time around, and just assumed that Theo and Blaise didn't like writing letters. Harry thought about writing to Hermione, just for amusement's value, as she hadn't taken kindly to being beaten in every subject (by quite a lot). He missed his old friends dearly, but had accepted that he would be losing them by coming back into the past in an effort to save them. Even before Ron died the golden trio hadn't really been happy. Fame went to Ron's head and Hermione found herself under enormous pressure to become girly and mere eye candy. Harry missed _his _Hermione's letters, and knew that even if he wrote to this Hermione, it wouldn't be the same. He also contemplated writing to Luna. Mostly because he felt he could probably just write and say 'Hello, you don't know me, but in an alternate future we were in love' and Luna would probably write back happily. In the end he settled in to waiting for friendships to form, and making friends with the locals.

Harry was on good terms with Dalvin quickly, having spent years getting to know him in the other time-line, and so being able to read him enough to win at a game of seerklo (a magical game similar to poker) with minimal effort. Dalvin hadn't made a comment about Harry's change in appearance after the first night, but he did check his age, to which Harry replied 'twenty-seven' with no qualms. Dalvin was part svartalfar (a black elf), and could sense the truth in Harry's words, so he accepted it and didn't question his eleven-year-old appearance after that. That was one of the things Harry liked most about knockturn alley; no one cared who or _what_ you were. Dalkin probably assumed Harry was some form of magical creature, and ignored his looks thereafter. The goblins were a bit more wary when Harry went to Gringotts to open an account under Harris Noir, but in the end a customer was a customer, and like Dalvin, they got plenty of weird folk coming through the knockturn alley entrance. The first time Harry had entered that way he realised that entering theough the Diagon entrance had probably been the biggest give-away when the trio had robbed Belatrix Lestrange, and suspected that if they had come in this way, they may not have been suspected right from the get-go, or had to use imperio. He also suspected that Sirius had probably just walked in to the knockturn branch and withdrawn money when he bought Harry's Firebolt, probably without question.

Similarly to when he spent his first-third year summer at Fortescue's, he spent a great deal of time at The Coffin House. It wasn't what it's name suggested, and was actually a café/bar, it just catered to predominantly Vampires, and Harry knew from an Auror raid that the café was a front to a number of underground illegal business ventures. Knockturn alley wasn't as clean as it should be legally, but the café sold an excellent mid-day roast, an even better coffee, and despite it's disreputable side-business, had friendly staff who weren't the least bit interested in discussing their illegal habits with an eleven-year old.

The holidays went much faster than Harry would have liked, but by the time August 19th came around it took very minimal effort for Harris Noir to convince Dalvin to side-along apperate him to near privet drive in order for him to receive his Hogwarts owl from the park behind the Dursleys, and Dumbeldore never need know that Harry had ever left. Knowing what to expect on his Hogwarts list, Harry had already made most of his purchases before he even got the letter. He had trawled through Wizarding supplies, Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, Lucy's second hand books and even Cobb & Webb's, and had managed to get not only most of his school books second hand with decent notes (Snape wasn't alone in writing in old text books), but also a much better complete 1st-7th year collection of DADA books from the various years that Hogwarts managed to find a decent professors. Harry had no intention of buying Lockheart's books at all, in fact, he had found a book of porn in Cobb & Webb's that would appear to be any other book the reader liked to anyone else but the owner, and had managed to convince (with a fair amount of prodding from his wand) the cover off, and on to a _Basic's of Arithmancy_ tome, which he intended to study in Lockhearts class. However two days later he found himself dragging his feet on his way to Diagon Alley to the Lockheart book signing. He was sure that Mrs. Weasley would be taking her kids shopping on the same day, to save floo powder and two trips, and he had convinced Borgin to admit that Lucius Malfoy was dropping some things off on the same day.


	2. Chapter 2

**TWO**

Making his way from Msaw Ætare up to Diagon alley took Harry nearly the whole stretch of knockturn, and was about a ten-minute walk. Harry was almost at the corner, when suddenly a huge person stepped out of Mr. Mulpepper's Apothecary in front of him. With no time to stop, Harry ran straight into Hagrid, who dropped the large can of slug repellent.

'Sorry sir.' Said Harry, picking up the can and handing to Hagrid.

'Watch where you're goin' then.' Hagrid said, and Harry nearly fell over again in shock. Hagrid, his big smiley friendly giant sounded as gruff and scary as his outer appearance suggested.

'Wh-what?'

'Move along then.' Hagrid said, pushing Harry slightly away from Diagon alley, the direction Hagrid set off in.

Harry stood in the middle of the street gaping for a good few minutes before he could process what had just happened. It shouldn't have been such a huge surprise really. Harry had seen the other side of all his light friends last year when he was sorted into Slytherin. In fact, the only person who hadn't judged Harry on it was Hermione, who disliked him because he was beating her in class, nothing to do with what house he was in. He was in his Harris Noir persona (having absolutely no intention of being dragged into the paper by Lockheart because he was Harry Potter), and was practically oozing dark magic. Of course it was because Harry was consciously projecting an aura, not because he had been practicing the dark arts, but to Hagrid, he was simply another dark wizard. After a moment he finally managed to collect himself, and started on his way again. He hadn't taken more than three steps when Lucius Malfoy stepped out in front of him from Borgin and Burkes, with Draco en tow. Harry hid an amused smirk as he stepped behind them to follow along.

'She's a menace father!'

'So you've mentioned.' Draco didn't seem to recognize his father's snub.

'She always has her mudblood hand waving around as if we couldn't-'

'Draco! What have I said about censoring your language.'

'Sorry father.' There was a pause in which Lucius slowed to nod at someone and Draco stopped to eye a cursed knife in the window of the necromancy shop Moribund's. 'I thought you said you were going to buy me a present.'

'I said I would buy you a racing broom.' Said Lucius.

'There's not much point. Bloody Potter's been on the team since last year. Everyone thinks he's so smart. Wonderful Potter with his scar, and his broomstick -'

'You have told me this at least a dozen times already,' said Lucius, with a quelling look at Draco. 'And I would remind you that it is not – _prudent_ – to appear less than fond of Harry Potter.'

'I'm not!' Draco interrupted before Lucius could continue, '…not really.'

Lucius raised one highly manicured eyebrow. 'Jealous then.'

'I have no chance in making the team.' Said Draco.

'I've told you I can bu-'

'It wouldn't matter. You haven't seen him fly.' Draco interrupted again.

'Potter was always a decent enough flier I suppose.' Lucius mused.

'What? I thought he had never flown before?'

'_James_ Potter, I mean.'

'Decent isn't a word that should be used in the same sentence as Potter… Harry that is. It doesn't even come close.' Draco sighed, 'Warrington might not want to play while his NEWT's are on. I'm okay at Chaser I guess.'

'He's really that good?' Lucius asked, actually pausing in his stride enough that Harry had to pretend to talk to a hag selling fingers so as not to catch up.

'He could play professional now and win.'

'Ah, yes. Well grades are an important part of getting a job in the ministry, and Quidditch takes up a lot of study time.'

'If that's a jab about Granger again – It's not my fault teachers have favorites!'

'I was referring to Warrington.'

Draco sulked for a long while, almost until they reached Diagon Alley. Harry stepped into The Spiny Serpent just before the corner, as he noticed Lucius had been aware of him dogging their steps.

_GILDEROY LOCKHART_

_will be signing copies of his autobiography_

_MAGICAL ME_

_today 12:30 P.m. to 4:30 P.m._

_Flourish and Blotts, Diagon Alley_

Harry grimaced at the sign on the way past, but was pleased to see Mrs. Weasley and Ginny in line clutching several Hogwarts letters. After giving the Malfoys enough time to loose themselves in the crowd, Harry let his aura fade to a much weaker one before stepping into Diagon alley. In the crowds of people less of them looked oddly at a twelve year old by himself, and Harry slowly dropped the aura completely. After collecting a few last minute things from Zonko's and buying himself a late birthday present of some new Quidditch pads, he sighed to himself then headed across to brave the crowds in the book store.

Harry was immediately amused to find Mr. Weasley standing with Fred and George, but eyeing Hermione's parents excitedly. Hermione was standing with Dean and Neville, who were chatting with Ron. Harry couldn't hear them over all the noise, but was glad to see Hermione and Ron weren't jumping down each other's throats.

He was surprised how many people he recognized, now that he was looking, as there were quite a few Hogwarts students from various year groups. Harry snorted loudly to himself when he found himself checking out a girl in a gorgeous red dress only for her to start picking up first-year books for her daughter.

'Gods I'm going to be messed up by this.' He muttered to himself.

It was only a few minutes later when Lockheart started prattling on, and Harry had to forcibly drag himself away from the balcony where he'd been looking down at the signing table; the extreme urge to drop the very large _Ten Thousand Runes and Translations_ off the edge and onto Lockheart's shiny hair became stronger and stronger by the minute. As Lockheart stood to announce he'd be teaching at Hogwarts (despite already knowing Harry felt a shiver of disgust go down his spine), Harry made his way to the front of the store, coming across Draco right as he ran into Ron.

'I see your mother is salivating over the celebrity, Weasley. I didn't realise your lot could sink any lower.'

'Shut up Malfoy!' Ah_,_ thought Harry, Ronneverdidhavethequickestcome_-_backs.

'Oh, is that _another_ Weasley?' Draco said as Ginny appeared carrying her caldron full of books. Harry started down the stairs, tucking the book on blood wards under his arm.

'At least our parents weren't so repulsed by their first child-'

'-that they didn't dare have another.' The twins said, popping up out of nowhere.

Mr. Weasley came around the corner of one isle at the same moment Mr. Malfoy stepped into the store. Harry placed himself next to a bookshelf right beside the two.

'What are you doing boys? It's too crowded in here, let's go outside.' Said Mr. Weasley, oblivious to the tension.

'Well, well, well – Arthur Weasley.' Lucius moved to stand behind Draco, a hand on each shoulder.

'Lucius.' Arthur nodded curtly.

'Busy time at the Ministry. I hear, All those raids… I hope they are paying you overtime?'

Lucius reached towards Ginny's caldron and Harry tensed… 'Obviously not.' But just before Lucius' hand got to her books the crowd around them broke into cheers. Lockheart had finished up, and with no Harry Potter to get side tracked on, he was making his way to the closest form of gossip available… an argument between two ministry employee's (_any_ extra chance to make the news).

'Mr. Malfoy, what a pleasure!'

'Gilderoy Lockheart… my how you've changed.'

Much to Harry's delight Lockheart flushed for a moment, and behind the easy smile and laughing it off Harry could tell he was deeply uncomfortable and already regretting coming over. Harry was regretting it too, as Lucius was now showing no signs of having, or passing on a diary, and Mr. Weasley had already started herding his children out the door.

Harry watched Lucius like a hawk the whole time he was in the store, and even followed him out of it, slipping under his invisibility cloak and following the Malfoy's all the way until they met up with Narcissa and apperated out. Harry swore long and hard causing a young mother to put a hand over her toddler's ears and frown disapprovingly. Harry didn't care. Had Lucius given the diary to Ginny? Had he given it someone else? Or had he decided to keep it for now?

Walking up towards the bank Harry kicked a pebble aside with anger. Harry saw Hagrid look up from talking to Mrs. Weasley and spot him, giving Harry an angry scowl. Harry snarled back, causing Mrs. Weasley to jump in freight. Harry stormed up the stairs and into Gringotts, angry with himself, and only getting angrier because he'd just been a right prat and scared Mrs. Weasley as well for no fair reason.

Harris Noir slipped into the public bathrooms the bank had stepping into a stall and taking out his contacts, then running his hair under the taps and using a quick wandless drying charm. He pulled his fake glasses out of his pocket and concentrated for a moment pulling any last trace of the dark aura and letting his natural aura show. He stepped out of the stall and startled a little. He hadn't been in his Harry Potter form since the beginning of the holidays and he felt a bit odd in his own skin. He had grown quite a bit too. Sighing he grabbed some toilet paper, dampened it and wiped off the muggle make-up he had been using to hide his scar.

Harry Potter stepped out of the bathroom and made his way over to the tellers.

'I would like to make a withdrawal from my vault.'

Harry had a plan for his money. He only had access to his trust fund until he came of age (by which stage the Potter Vault would be emptied by his fa-… _James Potter_). Unfortunately for the remaining Potter's, the trust vault was set up in such a way that if he emptied it almost completely, then at the end of the financial period it would be re-filled to the original amount from the Potter vault. It only refilled once a year, however trust vaults were usually a lot smaller. Harry could only assume that his parents felt guilty for abandoning him, so made the vault much bigger assuming it was the only one he'd ever have access to. Instead, Harry had every intention of emptying it completely, minus a few knuts, every year, and moving the money into a separate vault; thus allowing the trust vault to be completely filled seven times before he was cut off. Dumbledore could probably get his hands on records of when withdrawals had been made, but not the amount. Harry had already been in to set up his alias vault, but didn't want any paper trails linking the two, so he had to withdraw all the coins manually, then would carry them to the branch in knockturn and deposit them manually. This also had the advantage of traveling in the carts twice – something Harry had come to treat as a great, long rollercoaster (much to the Goblin's amusement).

Coming out of the bank Harry subconsciously flattened his fringe over his scar. He couldn't keep his notice-me-not charm on it over the holidays as he couldn't do magic. His scar was soon pushed from his mind as a small set of hands grabbed him around the leg and pulled him sideways between Ollivanders and a bits-and-bobs store where Harry could see Percy Weasley reading _Prefects Who Gained Power_. He could remember Percy becoming Head of the Department of International Affairs only three years after the war ended (the youngest Head of Department ever), and couldn't help but sneer a little at Ron and the twins who was laughing at the title of Percy's book. The small hands around his leg were insistent however, and Harry looked down to see wide eyes looking up at him from between large floppy ears.

Dobby.

'I has been looking for you.' It hurt a little to see Dobby again after so much time. As much as having a small elf clinging to his leg annoyed Harry, he couldn't help but remember Dobby dying in his arms with Bellatrix's dagger sticking out of his chest. 'Mr. Harry Potter must not return to Hogwarts!'

'Hello.' Harry sighed internally, but smiled outwardly.

'Hogwarts will be in great danger!'

'Listen – what's your name?' Harry pretended.

'I is called Dobby Mr. Harry Potter Sir.'

'It's nice to meet you Dobby.'

Dobby's eyes went wide and he burst into tears. 'Harry Potter is too kind.'

'Right. You realise Dobby that if I don't return they will only come looking for me?'

'Harry Potter must not return! Harry Potter must be safe!' while Dobby was warning Harry he was wringing his hands over and over. Harry opened his mouth to continue with the pointless argument, but then stopped himself. There was very little he could do to stop Dobby from interfering, and he had been forgetting to use his Slytherin side.

'Harry ha- erm, _I_ have to return Dobby. If I don't go _through the barrier_,' Harry slowed down and spoke the words slightly louder, 'then they will come and look for me.'

'Through the barrier… No, Harry Potter must not… Dobby will be sure… Dobby must keep Harry Potter _safe_.'

'I will be safe once I am through the _barrier_, and back with my friends.'

There, Harry had gotten them off topic. He had every intention of flooing to the platform, but hopefully this would put Dobby off the scent.

'Friends who don't even write to Harry Potter?'

'Eh, I don't mind if they didn't write.' Harry shrugged.

'But Harry Potter must-'

'I need to go now Dobby. I am meeting with some friends.' Harry lied. 'They will suspect if I don't show.' Then Harry wrenched his leg free and headed in to Gambol and Japes to look at the wet-start fireworks he remembered existed there. He could feel Dobby's eyes on him for a while, so hung around getting suspicious looks from the teller and Fred and George, who thought they were being subtle about following him around the shop. Eventually one of the Malfoy's must have called Dobby, so Harry slipped into a corner pulling on his invisibility cloak and changing his aura before heading back to knockturn alley. Harry was just impressed he'd gotten through the whole situation without Dobby ramming his head painfully into a wall or anything similar. He would make sure not to be seen as Harry Potter for the rest of the holidays.

September first snuck up quickly after the trip to Diagon alley. Harry went back to Diagon twice to collect a few things, but spent the majority of his time in and around Msaw, even helping out a few mornings in the kitchens. Dalvin had been skeptical, but Harry had trained as a chef in his original timeline to get away from the magical world for a while after the war, so after an hour cutting onions to perfection when a messy job should have taken half the day, Harry was allowed to move on to other things, and in no time at all was multitasking like the regular staff. At 9 am Harry had his trunk packed and had sent Hadwin on ahead. Apep was comfortably around his middle, and he had checked out and said his goodbyes. He was looking like himself again, but had his hood up and was still leaking dark magic to feed his Harris Noir aura. Harry still hated using the floo. He could remain on his feet now, after _years_ of practice, but would never manage a graceful landing.

'Kings Cross.' Harry threw the floo powder in and stepped into the fireplace. For one horrible moment he thought he hadn't fooled Dobby, but after only a _little_ longer than usual the spinning slowed down and Harry stumbled out onto the platform. As soon as he was through he stepped away from the fireplace's and immediately began altering his aura. He had come out near the Malfoy's (typical), and Narcissa seemed to tense a little, and gave him a curious look as his Aura switched from very dark to very light. Harry just ignored her and stepped onto the train before she could take in too many details of his appearance. He moved quickly along the train and took up an empty compartment at the far end pulling his cloak off and pulling out the book on blood wards he had found while in Flourish and Blotts.

.:I do not like the spinning flame at all:. Apep complained after a moment to settle down. Harry had used the floo twice over the holidays, once to take a parcel to Bath for Dalvin, and one international trip to go and see a Quidditch match in Ballycastle between the Bats and the Pride of Portree. Both times Apep had traveled with him, however apparently snakes weren't meant to floo, and Apep remained dizzy for quite a while after getting out.

Harry chuckled. .:I could have left you at home this year:.

.:I almost think it would have been better for you to post me:.

.:You hate flying just as much!:.

Apep tightened a little around Harry's middle, but conceded. .:Worse. Snakes were _not_ meant to fly:.

Harry was along until almost eleven, when his breath caught and his chest tightened. Luna was standing at his door.

'Do you mind if I sit here? Most of the other empty compartments are filled with berrytropes.'

'Sure.' Harry felt his voice break a little and went red. 'I'm Harry Potter, by the way.'

'Hello Harry Potter. I'm Luna Lovegood.' She held out her small hand for Harry to shake, and he did so, ignoring the flip-flop of his stomach.

'Erm, what is a berrytrope?' he asked after a moment of silence.

'A large invisible bubble that floats around until it finds a susceptible human to encase. They inhibit the natural flow of conversation.'

'Ah.' Harry nodded. 'I think I can inhibit the natural flow of a conversation enough on my own. Best avoid those.'

Luna gave him a surprisingly cold once over compared to her usual dreamy look, but after a moment she seemed to decide to sit anyway. She pulled out a Quibbler and began reading. Harry was still undecided about Luna's creatures (despite finding what he was relatively sure were actual Nargles), but he hadn't wanted to offend her, and wasn't even being sarcastic. There may not really be berrytropes, but he didn't mind considering the possibility. They sat in a silence that wasn't quite comfortable until the train pulled out of the station. Luna waved to her dad in an odd dance-like pattern before settling back into the Quibbler.

It was nearly ten minutes before anyone found them.

'Harry Potter you total arse!'

Harry looked up from the section he had been reading on using a mix of magical and muggle blood to weaken the wards around entry points.

'Lovely to see you too Miss Greengrass.' He replied sarcastically.

'Don't you Miss Greengrass me! You didn't reply to any of my letters!'

Harry was a little shocked for a moment before his brain caught up and he cursed silently to himself. Bloody Dobby. 'Ah, I didn't get any letters?'

'I wrote to you three times! I was starting to worry when Theodore mentioned he saw you in Diagon Alley, _perfectly_ _fine_.'

'He was in Diagon? Why didn't he say hello?'

'Oh I don't know, maybe because _you didn't answer his letters either_!'

'I didn't get any mail this holidays except my Hogwarts letter!' Harry pushed confusion into his tone. He really should have thought about this. He had only let his signature show at Privet Drive just long enough to let the Hogwarts letter through, but even if Dobby hadn't been stealing his mail, they letters wouldn't have sent because they would have needed to be addressed to Harris Noir.

'Maybe the Nargles took them.' Luna said in her calm way. Harry's lip quirked at Daphne's shocked look. It wasn't often someone broke through the ice queen's façade.

'Maybe.' Daphne finally answered diplomatically. 'But it could be something else, and it's quite worrying. You're sure you didn't receive any mail?'

'Are you sure you sent any?' Harry returned. Daphne frowned, still standing in the doorway. 'Would you like to sit?' Harry offered.

'I don't know how to steal someone's mail.' She sat, but her temper didn't abate.

'You best get right on that.' Harry smirked, 'What sort of professional criminal can't even steal some mail.'

'Shoosh you.'

Harry laughed, but then suddenly remembered this wasn't _his_ Daphne, and as far as he could remember, they had only spoken a few times towards the end of the last year. His amusement fled.

'Not to be rude, but I thought you didn't like me?'

Daphne opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by the door slamming sideways.

'Finally!' Blaise all but yelled, stomping into the compartment quickly followed by Theo. Theo looked less than pleased about being there. 'I have been looking all over for you.' He slumped down into the seat next to Luna.

'Blaise, Theo.' Harry nodded, 'Did you have a nice holiday?'

'_You_ wouldn't know would you?' Theo said under his breath. Harry had already forgotten about the mail (it really wouldn't stick in his memory), but Daphne came to his rescue.

'He wasn't getting any of his mail.'

'What?'

Harry launched into his explanation again.

'It's not normal.'

Daphne was decisive. She could be cool and aloof (and Harry knew she had only developed this persona over her Hogwarts years until it was like speaking to two different people in public and in private), but she was always decisive. She had always had a fierce strength behind her beliefs that had often made Harry wonder in later years if she wouldn't have made it in Gryffindor. Harry felt awful. He was already playing it against her. He was determined to bring up Dobby, but didn't want anyone to suspect he did it on purpose. It probably wouldn't have mattered in the long run, but while he had a Slytherin side, he had been a Gryffindor for almost two decades, and his sly needed a bit of training. He knew he had to get it in now while his friends were more oblivious.

'Well we've established that; but it's not like unusual things don't happen to me all the time.'

'Name one thing.' Daphne demanded.

Harry looked at her for a long time, staring her down.

'What?' She was on the defensive.

'So there was this curse that everyone said you can't beat right…'

'That doesn't count!' she spluttered.

Harry cracked a grin.

'So it's perfectly normal to have your mail stolen.'

'It could be.'

'I'm not sure how I feel about this so called wizarding world.'

'Harry!' The way she said that reminded Harry forcefully of Hermione. 'Okay, so it is a bit strange, but I bet nothing else extraordinary happened over your holidays.'

'A house elf tried to kid knap me in Diagon alley.'

'…'

'What?' Harry mirrored her tone perfectly. She sent him a solid glare before shutting her eyes and pulling on her mask again. Harry felt pretty good about having it break loose for so long. It had taken him months of work in the last time-line.

'A house elf could have stolen your mail. Was it called Mia?'

Harry was caught off guard. 'No? Should it have been?'

'Or Bini?'

'No, it was-'

'hmm, how about Frou?'

'It-'

'Loo Loo?'

Harry opened his mouth.

'Terri? Limi? Noddy?'

'No he wa-'

'Dobby? Flopsy? Tria?'

'No!' Harry yelled, then his brain caught up. 'Wait… yes.'

'Ah, a Malfoy elf. Which one?'

'Dobby. He said his name was Dobby.'

'How odd.'

'How do you know the names of everyone's house elves? I recognize Frou as the Warrington elf, and isn't Bini Flint's uncle's?' Theo interrupted, suddenly taking an interest in the conversation. Blaise and Theo had been playing chess up until that point, with Luna commentating under her breath. Harry could barely hear her, and he was sitting closest to her, so he was pretty sure the others couldn't. Her comments about knights just wanting to dance had nearly sent him over the edge a few minutes earlier.

'Mia is a nice name. Is that your elf?' Luna asked Daphne. Daphne got that pained look on her face again, which appeared every time she looked at Luna.

'It is.'

'Is it short for Miamasusia?'

'Wh-'

'Anyway!' Harry interrupted. 'Dobby is a Malfoy elf you say?'

'Yes, so all you have to do is find-'

'Potter! Have a good holidays back with your muggles?' Draco walked in right on cue, making Harry suspect he'd secretly been hiding in the corridor waiting for the opportune moment. He always _had_ had a thing with visiting Harry on the train. Harry ignored the taunt. He had to concentrate of not getting Dobby in trouble.

'I think your house elf is in love with me.'

Needless to say that wasn't how Draco, _nor_ _Daphne_ were expecting Harry to respond, and Draco spent a few moments to splutter before he could get out a normal sentence.

'It might be a dingletwap in disguise, they too enjoy doing cleaning.' Luna added, _just_ as Draco calmed down enough to attempt to talk again.

Harry eyed Luna sideways for a moment, wondering for the thousandth time whether she truly believed in her creatures, or if she just enjoyed watching people's brains curling in on themselves.

'My house elf _is not_ in love with you Potter!'

'I thought we were on first name basis Draco?' Harry smirked.

Draco looked pained for a moment before slumping into a chair. Greg and Vince stood awkwardly in the door way as there were no seats left.

'Why do you think my elf is in love with you?' Draco was resigned to the madness.

'Dobby seems to be under the impression that my regular correspondence are actually love letters addressed to him.'

Draco spluttered again, and out of the corner of his eye he could see Daphne's mask cracking again, and her left eye twitch a bit. Theo and Blaise had thrown away all decorum and were almost rolling on the ground laughing.

Draco glared. 'Is _that_ why you didn't answer my letter?'

It was Harry's turn to gape.

'You wrote me a letter?' He honestly considered it for a moment, and wondered if he would have written back.

'Dobby!'

There was a small pop, then Dobby appeared in the middle of the compartment facing Draco, which put him with his back to Harry.

'Little Master sir called for Dobby?'

'Yes. Have you been stealing Po- Harry's mail?'

Even though his skin was already pale green, Harry could tell Dobby's face had drained.

'We know you're a little obsessed with me Dobby, but I would really like my mail back please.'

'Ob- obsessed?' Dobby spun to face Harry clearly horrified that he was there. It took Harry a moment to remember that Dobby had tried to stop him getting to the platform. 'You is here!' Dobby began wringing his ears.

'Ah yes. Sorry about that. I decided to floo.'

'TO FLOO!' Dobby was clearly panicking.

'Well I know that you were intended to block the barrier so we could meet each other again, but I really did want to catch the train.'

'But Harry Potter was meant to be with his weezies!'

'What is a weezie?' Luna, who had been reading the Quibbler suddenly sounded interested. Draco seemed to have forgotten she was there. He turned away from Dobby and looked Luna slowly up and down before wrinkling his nose.

'What is Loony doing here?' he demanded.

'Harry brought her.' Said Theo.

'I didn't bring her.' Harry started, but Draco interrupted.

'Of course not, you have better tastes. So why is she here?'

Harry actually growled, and his aura flared, causing all the Slytherin's to jump in shock. Dobby just looked up at Harry with awe.

'Harry Potter is a _great_ wizard!'

Harry ignored it outwardly (but couldn't be happier – it was making his story about Dobby loving him look more plausible by the minute).

'Luna stays.' Was all Harry bit out in the end.

'I don't want to sit with-' Draco began.

'Then leave. But I want my mail first.'

There was an awkward silence, in which the Slytherin's all looked warily between Draco and Harry. In the end Draco looked away and sniffed.

'Fine. I'll put up with the trash for now.' Harry opened his mouth to argue but Draco talked over him. 'Dobby, give Harry his mail.'

Dobby looked utterly betrayed, but couldn't disobey a direct order, and pulled a huge pile of letters out from inside his pillowcase. As soon as Harry's had touched the letters Dobby disappeared with a sullen pop.

Draco stayed for a little while catching up with Theo and Blaise, but he kept raising Harry's hackles by insulting Luna. It was always subtle, and Luna seemed oblivious, but Harry remembered his friend mentioning that a passing comment of Harry's had been the nicest thing someone had _ever_ said to her at Hogwarts. The little things may not appear to bother her, but it must all build up. Luna was amazing in Harry's eyes, and her oddities only made her more beautiful because she was so true to herself all the time. Eventually Draco took his leave, taking Greg and Vince with him, and soon after Daphne disappeared to search out Tracey or Millicent. Once they left conversation wound down and Harry buried himself in the book on blood wards again.

Once the trolley had come around there were more people walking about the train, and slowly their compartment got more and more frequent visitors. They were all Slytherin, and most of them gave Luna disparaging looks, but asked after the three boys' summers. The entire Slytherin Quidditch team had been through (Rebo staying for quite a while to annoy his brother), the new prefects came and introduced themselves and quite a few people who claimed to know Blaise. Harry was a bit wary, as when he'd left Hogwarts at the end of the previous year Slytherin had barely tolerated him, and _then_ he'd lost ten points at the leaving feast loosing Slytherin the house cup. By the time they were about an hour away from Hogsmead Harry's curiosity finally won out.

'You sure seem to know a lot of people Blaise.' Harry commented without looking up from his book. The last few people to drop in had been giggling girls, and Harry had resorted to hiding behind his book as a cover.

'They aren't here to see me.' Blaise said, looking at Harry as if he were crazy. Harry returned the look.

'Almost every one of them has mentioned you or your mum.'

'My mother has links to many pure-blood families, and is a socialite. They are using me as an excuse to check in on you.'

Harry's jaw dropped and he sat gaping at Blaise for a long couple of minutes (until Luna mentioned something about Quirri-flies that liked to nest in lungs).

'But- But-…' Harry couldn't seem to find the words. Realising he was spluttering worse than Draco, and that Theo was laughing at his expense he snapped his jaw shut and let his brain catch up.

'Slytherin house hates me.'

'They did. But then Dumbledore took away those ten points at the end of the year.'

'Yes but he took them from me to increase the disdain for the boy-who-lived.'

'Yes. He tried to manipulate Slytherin house.'

It didn't take long for Harry to finally understand what had happened. When he did he suddenly burst out laughing. He couldn't stop for quite a while. Dumbledore had tried to out-sly the Slytherins, who were much more practiced in the art, and saw straight through his attempt at manipulation. Harry had every intention of climbing the Slytherin social ladder this time around, but he had never expected to get a boost from Dumbledore.

'Merlin, he's going to be livid when he realises what he's done.'

'Does the Headmaster not like you Harry Potter?' Luna suddenly spoke up. Harry was so used to her presence he kept forgetting she was there, and nearly jumped out of his skin.

'Yeah, something like that.'

'That's an odd way for him to go about his goals.'

Harry nodded absently, but Theo sat up and actually looked interested. 'What do you think his goals are?' He asked.

Luna let her Quibbler fall a little and looked Theo dead in the eye. 'He is secretly building up an army of chocolate frogs so he can take over the world and bring out a law to make it illegal to wear less than four clashing colours at any given time.'

Harry had never seen Theo look so shocked.

Luna drifted out of their compartment when the boys wanted to change into their robes, and disappeared further down the train, so the three boys got off the train on their own and made their way towards the carriages. They stepped through the Hogwarts gates only to step straight into the middle of a Weasley/Malfoy verbal embarrassment.

'Disappointed the school already has carriages Weasel? Your family could have earned a couple of knuts being pack-horses… There are certainly enough of you.'

'Shove off Malfoy.'

'Worried the carriages aren't going to be able to hold your weight under all that hair gel?' Seamus added in.

Harry found himself surrounded by Slytherins who were jeering the boys on and supporting Draco, but when he came within sight of the carriages Harry's world had narrowed down to a tunnel vision focusing on the thestral. A passing thought had occurred, and he couldn't shake it. Why hadn't he been able to see the thestrals until after Cedric died? He had seen his mother die (supposedly, or at least someone die – after his talk with Voldemort the year before Harry had been coming up with a theory on the events of that night). He had also killed Quirrell with his bare hands. He had sort of expected to see them again, as he had seen too much death during his life in the first time-line, and the thestrals invisibility was related to mind magics. Harry's body was twelve, but his mind wasn't.

Harry had become completely focused on the thestral and become oblivious to the Feud going on between him and the row of carriages. As such he was completely unaware of the chaos and shock he caused when Blaise muttered 'Thestrals.' And Draco, seeing only Blaise and Harry could see them, had tactlessly demanded to know who they had seen die. Blaise had muttered something about step-father number four, but Harry had looked at Draco, hardly paying any attention and replied loud enough for several people around him to overhear.

'My mum. I remember Voldemort killing my mum.' Harry had then moved on quickly in his mind to a new train of thought about the possibilities of him having been stepped through the Weasley/Malfoy battle and into the nearest carriage obliviously, leaving a large group of students gaping at him. He remained oblivious until he was sitting at the Slytherin table and Daphne poked him hard in the ribs to get his attention.

'Ow! What was that for?'

'Do you realise what you've done?'

Harry stared blankly back at her.

'Why did you say you could remember your mum dying. No one can remember being one.'

Harry, having no recollection of any conversation between seeing the thestral and Daphne poking him didn't remember mentioning it at all, but didn't see a problem with answering.

'Well I do. I have dreams about it all the time.'

'You remember the Dark Lord ki-… You remember that night?' Daphne's voice turned to a harsh whisper and she sounded scared.

Harry suddenly realised there were a lot more ears than Daphne's listening in, and noticing how Slytherin was avoiding looking at him directly again.

'It can be relatively traumatizing having someone try and kill you. I don't really want to talk about Voldemort.' All around him people hissed as he said the name, but he was used to that, so he ignored as several people told him not to do it.

Thankfully professor McGonagall took that moment to arrive with the first years, and the hat began to sing. Harry was looking the first years over carefully. His mind wasn't straying too far from the Diary Horcrux at any given time, and he was pretty sure that if Lucius _had_ given it to someone, it was almost definitely a first year; A child would be most susceptible to the Diary's influence and least likely to know to turn it in. He took note of the demeanor of all the students being sorted and filed it away ready to compare them a few months in to the school term for signs of stress. He remembered Ginny having signs of the flu and being especially upset after the writing went up on the wall.

Despite the fact that he didn't have any proof that the diary would even come to the school that year, he was confident it would. Over the last year he had noticed that even though he was changing lots of things, events that had happened before seemed to _want_ to repeat themselves as closely as possible with the new changes. For that reason alone he would be watching Ginny closely.

He was amused to see that while all of the first years looked various states of nervous, Luna was looking perfectly content, if mildly interested in the hat. He would have paid good money to be able to hear the (long) conversation she had with the hat before she was placed in Ravenclaw. Harry had a very nervous few minutes while Ginny went under the hat. It was quite clear that she was arguing heavily with it, and Harry suspected she was trying to convince it to put her in Slytherin. Despite being a 'slimy snake', rumor had been passed to Harry on the train that she had been gossiping away about how she was finally going to meet her future husband this year. Harry had a brief moment of doubt where he suspected Ginny of using love potion on him in the last time-line, but quickly realised she would have thrown that back in his face during their nasty divorce if she had. It was with guilty relief that Harry heard the hat proclaim 'GRYFFINDOR', and he tried to ignore the sad looking glance that Ginny sent his way as she sat down between Percy and Ron.

It was at this point that Harry realised Gryffindor was far too quiet despite their clapping. It only took him a moment to find out why. The Weasley twins weren't there. Harry glanced up at the teacher's table. Snape was gone too. Harry's mind ran back over the conversation he'd had with Dobby on the train about being with his weezies.

'Oh bloody hell.' Harry swore under his breath. 'I really hope they don't get expelled.'


	3. Chapter 3

**THREE**

The next morning at breakfast confirmed Harry's guess. The usual first day bustle was happening as the heads of house passed out time-tables, when the post arrived, and all of a sudden the Weasley twins were up and running trying to make it out the door. They didn't get very far however when their howler exploded and echoed around the hall for all to hear.

_FREDERICK FABIAN AND GEORGE GIDEON! HOW DARE YOU STEAL THAT CAR? I AM ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED! I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY'D EXPELLED YOU! YOU JUST WAIT TILL I GET HOLD OF YOU!_

_I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT WAS GONE? YOUR FATHER'S NOW FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, AND IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT._

_I HAD YET ANOTHER LETTER FROM DUMBLEDORE LAST NIGHT, I THOUGHT YOUR FATHER WOULD DIE OF SHAME, WE DIDN'T BRING YOU UP TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS!_

_I HAVE HAD IT WITH YOUR PRANKS. THIS IS ENOUGH. IF I HEAR OF YOU PUTTING EVEN ONE TOE OUT OF LINE I WILL BRING YOU BOTH STRAIGHT HOME!_

Around the hall people were laughing and jeering. Harry noticed Ron sending his brothers a foul look that screamed of jealousy.

'I wonder what happened?' Theo said sitting down next to Harry and stealing the piece of toast Harry had just finished buttering. Harry scowled at him.

'Look in the paper. I hear they flew a car to Hogwarts instead of taking the train.'

'At least Gryffindor is already in negative points.'

'What?' Harry looked up surprised. When he and Ron had arrived they had gotten away with it being before the term started.

'Yep. Thirty points a piece.'

'Ouch.' Tracey said, slipping in next to Blaise across from Harry.

'They don't look too upset about it mind you.' Harry pointed out, noting Fred and George swarmed with Gryffindors. Harry also noted Ginny chatting to Olivia cheerfully and pointing between her brothers and herself looking proud. Harry frowned.

'What class have we got first Harry?' Daphne asked.

Harry startled as he had been absorbed in reading a tome and absently eating a piece of toast. It was odd having people talking to him. He'd spent the last year being actively avoided or shunned. Theo and Blaise had talked to him a bit, but they were actually friendly for the whole train trip, and had sought him out before breakfast. Daphne seemed to include Harry in every sentence she could. He could only assume that she was trying to make up for being rather rude the previous year. Harry couldn't help but be amused. Dumbledore's ten points had done wonders, and with a few carefully placed words last night in the common room he already had a few older students loosely orbiting him too.

'Charms first, then History and then after lunch Potions double.'

'Don't sound so thrilled about potions.' Daphne teased.

'It's with the Gryffindors.' And if Harry remembered correctly, Snape would be placing them in inter-house pairs. He was hoping to get Neville again, but was worried he'd get Ron. He didn't want to spend the whole year dealing with sabotage.

The Slytherins walked up to Charms as a group. Pansy was showing off a new necklace she'd won in a Witch Weekly competition to Tracey and Daphne, Millicent and Lillian were comparing notes on something with Crabbe, and Draco was joining in on Theo and Blaise's Quidditch debates. It felt odd to be in the center of such a normal group… kind of _nice._

Of course with Harry's luck it didn't last long. They rounded the last corner into the Charms corridor and Harry sighed. Gilderoy Lockheart was there explaining to Flitwick about how the world champion dueler could have done a little better _if_ _only_ he'd had Gilderoy to help him out with a few nifty spells. Harry immediately manipulated the group so he was standing behind Goyle, but it was too late and Lockheart had caught sight of him.

'Harry! I've been wanting a word – You don't mind if he's a few minutes late, do you, Professor Flitwick?'

Harry could see the internal battle Flitwick was having between saving Harry and getting rid of Lockheart. Before he could decide Lockheart had a hand on Harry's elbow and was leading them away.

'That's the ticket!'

Harry rolled his eyes as the Slytherins and Ravenclaws snickered at him on their way into the Charms room.

'Harry.' Lockheart grinned down at Harry conspiratorially with far too many perfectly white teeth. 'Harry, Harry, Harry.'

Completely nonplussed – Harry said nothing.

'When I heard – well, I could have kicked myself.'

Harry had no idea what Lockheart was going on about. In the original time-line he had berated Harry's supposed attempt at publicity with the car, but Harry hadn't done that here.

'Don't know when I've been more shocked. Flying a car to Hogwarts! I thought you were meant to be a hero?'

Harry was completely confused now. 'That was the Weasley twins.' He replied monotone.

'Exactly! Harry, Harry, Harry.' Harry was starting to get annoyed at the repetition of his name, and while Lockheart sighed down at him he had a surreal moment where he could almost sympathize with Tom Riddle wanting to abandon his own name.

Lockheart prattled on oblivious. 'Harry, while I can only commend you for choosing to enter the public realm at such a young age,' Harry's jaw dropped open. Lockheart was too busy being patronizing to actually take in his audience. 'Killing of a pesky dark wizard just won't last you in the media circuit. You will have to continue doing extraordinary things to maintain the public's focus.' Harry couldn't believe what he was hearing, but also couldn't get his mind to focus on anything other than the fact that Gilderoy managed to talk while keeping every last one of his perfectly white teeth fully in view.

'Harry, your past is quite a good _start_, but nothing like winning Wictch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award five times in a row. But I suppose it is a foundation. I too began as a nobody like you. In fact, I would even go so far to say _more_ of a nobody! A few people remember the business with You-Know-Who, but they won't forever.'

Harry had forgotten exactly how mind-blowingly annoying Lockheart's arrogance and stupidity was, and had spent the whole conversation de-railed, however he could only take so much, and it was taking all of his will-power not to burst out laughing. He had to do something to stop this. He smiled his political smile, and looked Lockheart dead in the eyes.

'Did you know that the Defence teaching post was cursed by Voldemort when he didn't get the job.' Lockheart's monologue faltered, and Harry pushed on. 'Since the forties only four professors have survived. One of them left in a wheelchair, one of them without his magic, and two of them live in the permanent spell damage ward in St Mungos.'

Lockheart was looking rather pale, and Harry slipped back into the Charms room while the man was distracted.

'Ah, Mr. Potter, so glad you could join us. Bring your holiday work to the front please.' Flitwick sounded just a little bit amused. When Harry got close enough he even winked at him. 'We are studying the Fumos charm this week. There are notes on the board for you to copy. Once you are done you may attempt the spell.' Flitwick turned to face the rest of the class, who were already copying the notes down. 'I might point out that you will have to copy notes off your friends if too many people become successful in casting.' The pace of pens picked up. Harry began to head to the only empty chair, but Flitwick stopped him again.

'I never did have a chance to congratulate you on your Charms results last year Harry. They were wonderful. Your essays were some of the best I have seen in all my teaching. I also spoke to some of my colleges and it appears you aren't just interested in Charms?'

Harry blushed a little. 'Thank you sir.'

Flitwick sighed. 'It is a pity you didn't join us in Ravenclaw.'

There was a question hanging behind the words.

'The hat considered me for all the houses Sir.'

'_All_ of them? Even Gryffindor?'

Harry smirked. 'I could have made an excellent Hero, sir.'

'But now you won't?'

Harry laughed lightly giving the non-answer 'Now I will never be seen as such.'

He pulled away from the small professor. Su Li had already finished her notes and had managed to get a very light stream of fog from her wand. Harry needed to be able to see the board for long enough to get the notes down, even if he could already cast Fumos (and control the fog into shapes too – a spell he and Hermione had invented just for fun). He was squinting by the last paragraph, but managed to finish, and annoy Draco quite a bit when he produced the strongest most constant stream on his first go. Most of the time Harry could hold back on spells for the first few times, and sometimes he legitimately learnt new ones, as he hadn't been academically inclined during school in the original time-line. But some spells were so instinctual to Harry that he couldn't remember how to _not_ do them properly. Flitwick was, as usual, ecstatic.

'Well Done Mr. Potter! Five points to Slytherin.' Flitwick had been the only teacher at the end of last year who wasn't still almost awarding points to Gryffindor.

'Of course you got it perfect. You always do.' Draco sulked. Harry shrugged lightly, but didn't answer. He wasn't prepared to lie, so he just held his tongue.

Flitwick was oblivious to Draco's sulking. 'You are beginning to get a bit of a reputation Mr. Potter. I hear you came top in every class, and beat the records in a few!'

There was a murmur of shock around the Ravenclaws, and Harry went a bit red.

'Neville beat me in Herbology.' He offered. He felt rather guilty, as he was so much older than them all, but at the same time he couldn't help but be thrilled. He had thrashed Riddle's scores, and a few semantics about age weren't going to stop him from taunting Voldemort about his name no longer being on the trophy. It was self-updating, and while T. M. Riddle would forever remain in the archive book, Harry had every intention of having his name next to every year instead of Riddle's by the time he left Hogwarts.

Instead of letting Draco sulk, Harry kept giving him pointers, and by the end of the lesson was embarrassed to realise that a few of the Ravenclaws were actually taking notes! Flitwick caught Harry's eye on the way out and Harry went a bit red as the professor laughed and awarded him five more points for helping his class mates.

The Slytherins were almost at the History room when Harry was accosted for the second time that day.

'All right, Harry? I'm — I'm Colin Creevey," his pursuer said breathlessly, taking a tentative step forward. 'I'm in Gryffindor, too.'

Harry sighed. 'I'm in Slytherin Colin.'

'Oh.' Colin seemed to think on that for a moment, and Harry seriously wondered how his biggest fan could have even missed that the night before.

'D'you think — would it be all right if — can I have a picture?' Colin blurted out, raising the camera hopefully.

'A picture?' Harry repeated blankly. It was on the tip of his tongue to snap out a no, when just like with Dobby he found himself seeing _his_ Colin. Colin had died in the Battle of Hogwarts after sneaking back in.

Harry sighed and shut his eyes. He couldn't believe he was about to do this. 'Fine.' There was a startled gasp from Theo beside him. 'One. On the condition you _always_ ask permission to take my photo, and any photos that you do take I have rights over on publishing.'

Colin's fellow first years were looking petrified that Colin was cutting a deal with a Slytherin, and his own year mates were eyeing him calculatingly. Harry remembered Lockheart turning up on this situation in the original time-line, so he hastily snatched Colin's camera shoving it into Blaise's hands.

'Here, Blaise, you take it, and Colin can be in it.'

Harry stood next to Colin, who was busy staring him in awe. Desperately wanting to roll his eyes he slung an arm around Colin and smiled for long enough for Blaise to take the photo.

'Good luck with documenting Hogwarts Colin.' Harry said, using getting the camera back as an excuse to put a bit of space between them. 'Maybe you should try and get people interested in a year book.' Harry smirked. 'Now. Absolutely no more photos of me for the rest of the term!'

He could tell he left poor Colin spinning from the switch from friendly to cruel, and felt a little bad, but while he would give him that photo for _his_ Colin's sake – he wasn't intending to have a stalker for the year. Besides, he'd seen Lockheart come around the corner and had no intention of listening to the man prattle twice in one day. He had also departed before there was even a _hint_ of any conversations about signing anything.

'That was awfully nice Potter.' Justin Finch-Fletchley piped up as soon as the second years were settled in their seats.

Harry shrugged. 'He was watching me all last night. I figure it was best to put a stop to it before it could begin… besides, he seemed harmless enough.'

The first part of the response was mainly to the Slytherins, who he was quite happy to alert to his status, but not willing to look like he would give in easily. Professor Binns arrived before anyone could say anything more.

Harry sat up and began taking notes, while almost everyone else in the class slumped and looked like staying awake was the hardest task they had ever known. This always amused Harry. The first time round he would have been… No, _was_ right there with them, but because he had never paid attention in the original time-line, History class was one of the few things which he didn't already know, and so actually held his interest. He had been aiming to beat Tom Riddles marks last year, and for getting especially high Charms, Transfiguration and DADA marks, but the O+ in history had come as a complete surprise. Standing out as something new made Binn's monotone drawl bearable, and Harry had found that he was actually enjoying History classes, and once you got into the details, wizarding history was in fact really, really interesting. He was glad that he had the class with Hufflepuff, and wasn't looking forward to having it with Gryffindor the next year. The Ravenclaws had done their best to take notes the year before, and the Hufflepuffs would remain respectfully silent, but Harry remembered third year history as a loud free in which games were played and notes were passed. He wasn't looking forward to it. Nor having Hermione no doubt take his interest as a challenge. He was hoping she didn't know about his grades from the year before. He sighed lightly before tuning back in to Binn's drone about the third century vampire politics.

History apparently dragged on for his friends, but Harry felt as if it were over in a blink. Draco was loudly complaining about how the vampires should have spent their time trying to find a way to forcibly exorcise ghosts, rather than worry about sorting out their political hierarchy, and much to his amusement Daphne and Blaise were both reluctantly agreeing. They almost never agreed with Draco, merely on principle, and not for the first time Harry wondered why they hadn't taken over as the top of Slytherin in the original time-line. Daphne alone could have managed it on her own (with only a bit of battle), but together with Blaise it would have been a breeze. Harry was ecstatic that Daphne had decided to be his friend, not only because he'd gotten on with her really well in the future, but because it would make his coup next year all that much easier.

Harry was shaken out of his political musings when he ran into the back of Draco, who had stopped to yell at Ron.

'Bloody hell. Not again.' He couldn't help but mumble under his breath getting an amused snort from Theo.

'You're looking even more ratty than normal Weasley. What's the matter? Worried mummy might pull you out of school too?'

Harry looked over to find that Ron did look rather pale, but then he looked at the rest of the Gryffindors and saw that a few of them were looking rather misplaced. It wasn't until he caught sight of Neville, whose shirt had a large tear through his collar that he caught on. And that was before he saw the pixie making a nest in Hermione's hair.

'Something seems to have taken up home in your hair Miss Granger.' He drawled. Gods it felt weird to call her that. He was completely surprised by the attempted slap, not expecting it at all. His hand still darted out and grabbed her wrist on instinct, stopping it millimeters from his skin.

'Let. Me. Go.' She struggled, and Harry suddenly found several lions wands trained on him. He opened his mouth to reply, when McGonagall rounded the corner.

'MR. POTTER! How _dare_ you! Fifteen points from Slytherin!'

That immediately got the Slytherins up in arms, but Harry remained perfectly still, gripping Hermione's wrist and looking her in the eyes.

'I will not permit you to take vengeance without fair means.' He told her in a voice devoid of emotion.

'Remove your hand at once!' McGonagall bristled, not liking being completely ignored by Harry. He did let her hand drop however, then stepped back and smirked.

'Accio Pixie.' Hermione let out a squeal as the pixie grabbed onto her hair in an effort to remain nested. It was futile and Harry nicked it calmly out of the air before it could fly off, holding it from behind so it couldn't bite him.

Hermione went bright red and her eyes sunk to the floor in shame. McGonagall however had no such qualms.

'Another five points for magic in the halls… And detention tonight!'

'Oh, I have detention with Snape tonight.' Harry said quietly and completely unconcerned, but surprisingly his voice carried enough. He had made it sound like he was too busy to bother with her. A small part of Harry was highly enjoying annoying McGonagall to the point where her eye had begun to twitch.

'Thursday then - at Seven sharp!'

'Of _course_ professor.'

McGonagall harrumphed but walked off. But it had been a clear win to Harry, and it seemed as if he'd impressed the Slytherins enough for them to forget the photo issue.

It must have been Harry's day to be ensnared, as they hadn't even made it to the Great Hall before Flint grabbed Harry and pulled him away from the second years towards the majority of the Quidditch team.

'Warrington isn't going to play. Tell him he won't have to take too much time out of his study to train as you'll trounce the other seekers to the snitch before any of us even have to play.' Flint insisted.

_Looks like Lucius got to Warrington_ Harry thought, but he promptly replied without pause 'You won't have to take too much time out of your study to train as I'll trounce the other seekers to the snitch before any of you even have to play.'

He got a few laughs around the group, including Grace Weitts, who was sitting with Erebos "Call me Rebo" Nott. Harry raised an eyebrow at the two. He really liked Rebo, who played beater on the Quidditch team, and thought he and Weitts would go quite well together, but it was unlike her to show any preference. Despite being the Slytherin Queen, there was a great deal of sexism in the house, and any male she got close to was a threat to her throne. Harry found himself considering politics again for the thousandth time that day.

'Nah, I've been guaranteed a spot in the department of Games and Magical Sports, but only if I average A's. My grades haven't been that great so…' Warrington managed to look happy and disappointed at the same time.

'You don't want to play professional Quidditch?' Harry asked, a little surprised. Warrington had had a minor career with the Falcons for quite a few seasons before settling in as a trainer in the original time-line.

'Not all of us have the natural-born skills of a bird Potter!' Warrington reached out, and much to Harry's surprise ruffled Harry's hair. As a general fact, Harry didn't like people touching him, and his bristles went up on instinct, causing his aura to flare for a moment. He cursed internally, but pretended he hadn't noticed the way everyone around him had suddenly stared. Grace Weitts was suddenly looking much more interested in him, which Harry wasn't sure if he liked or not. It would depend on what she decided, although it would only be a minor set back if she didn't like him, as she loathed Draco.

'Not my hair Julius!' Harry joked, with a girly overtone, 'I spent _hours_ getting it so perfect!'

The tension broke as everyone laughed, as Harry naturally looked like he had constant sex-hair. The calculating glances didn't all go away though.

'I guess we'll have to hold trials.' Flint sighed.

Harry's eyes followed what he now recognized as the Malfoy owl as it flew in with the mail and landed in front of Professor Snape.

'I'd hold out on that for a tiny bit longer if I were you.' Harry said, as Snape's eyebrows went up and he glanced first at Draco, then Dumbledore, then Flint.

'Why's that Har?'

Harry glanced at him, unsure how he felt about the nickname.

'Rumor.' Was all he supplied, before digging in to his lasagna. A few moments later Snape came over and collected Flint for a chat.


	4. Chapter 4

**FOUR**

Harry was informed in his detention with Snape that night, that his detention with McGonagall had been claimed by Snape himself. Harry had gotten the current detention because he had been caught supplying water balloons to Peeves, which naturally annoyed Snape beyond caring that Harry's first name was Harry not James, and had actually lost Slytherin five points. Snape had then (Harry suspected once his rage cooled down) promptly awarded Theo and Blaise three points each for trying to stop him. The fact that they had only wanted to avoid being Peeves targets had been ignored. The detention tonight was spent scrubbing caldrons, however Harry was left gaping when Snape told him to bring his homework to the detention tomorrow.

It became clear almost at once that Snape had heard the events that led to Harry's detention from a Slytherin, and had taken offence to the blatant prejudice. That didn't stop Harry from suffering a severe shock at Snape actively taking Harry's side and protecting him. Harry knew that Snape did so for almost all of Slytherin house on a regular basis, however he hadn't expected Snape to get over his dislike of Potters so easily, especially after hints of pranking genes. He spent the whole detention eyeing Snape warily, partly expecting for his skin to start bubbling and someone else to appear under polyjuice.

By the time Harry got back to the dorm room at ten, he was exhausted from such a long day, and blatantly ignored both Flint and Draco, who tried to catch his eye, and went to bed.

Unfortunately a long restorative sleep wasn't to be, and he found himself being woken at some ungodly hour of the morning by a gruff looking Flint.

'We need to train our new chaser.' Was the only explanation Harry got, other than his Quidditch robes being thrown in his face. Everyone else in the dorm was woken when Flint suddenly gave out a giant yelp and jumped backwards crashing through the glass door to the balcony. Harry was now fully awake, and grumpy. He grabbed Flint by his robes, and with a gigantean effort, pulled him back inside before flicking his wand and repairing the glass.

'Repairo. You are bloody lucky that that wasn't one of the windows.' Harry grumbled, pulling on his Quidditch Jersey. Flint was backed up against the wall as soon as Harry let go, staring at Harry's bed (which should have been the first sign of alarm, but Harry was too asleep to notice).

'What the hell is wrong with you?' Theo suddenly demanded, 'It's four thirty! You should be asleep, not jumping through windows!'

'Snake!' Was all Flint managed to get out. Suddenly Harry paled.

'Marcus…' there was a cold hardness and warning, but the damage had been done. If he hadn't been so annoyed, Harry would have been amused. Goyle, who had come over to investigate the window, had followed where Flint was pointing and let out a high-pitched girly squeal, before practically sprinting to the other side of the room. Harry had never seen such a big boy move so fast – even when Dudley had been threatened by George Weasley with sweets again one boxing day after the war.

Harry couldn't help it. Despite having Apep exposed, he burst out laughing. Apep, who had been asleep on Harry's back (supposedly for warmth), remained asleep through the whole ordeal (including falling off Harry onto the bed when Harry got up) right up until Greg's squeal. Now Apep was awake and worrying.

.:They have discovered me master! What do I do? Shall I eat them for you?:.

Harry's laughter only increased, but he stepped forward and scooped Apep off the bed and onto his shoulders to stop him getting any ideas.

The chaos that ensued was even greater than the boys being woken up to Flint falling through a glass window. Ironically it turns out that Greg was rather afraid of snakes (a Slytherin!), however with a surprising amount of bravery, he approached when Harry promised Apep wouldn't attack, and even managed to pat him (although he snatched his hand right back in shock, having expected Apep to be slimy not smooth). Theo had immediately spotted the pouch in Harry's clothing which Apep had a good part of his tail wound into, and demanded to know exactly how long Harry had had a snake.

'Since he stole him from a muggle zoo.' had not gone down as the correct answer, but having accepted that they would discover Apep eventually, Harry was far too amused not to mess with them. It took a lot longer than Harry would have liked to convince them all to give an oath not to tell yet, however he managed it.

Draco had inhibited the whole thing, constantly pointing out that Apep was seven foot long, as if Harry didn't know, or might not have noticed. Greg paled every time it was mentioned, and it wasn't until Harry pointed out that Apep had been there all of first year, and went with Harry wherever he went (other than flying) that finally convinced Greg to let him stay. The comment about flying finally broke through to Flint, and Apep was returned to Harry's bed and Harry and Draco were dragged off to Quidditch practice.

Harry was amused to note that Greg was dressed and out the door after than them faster than you could say "Quidditch". Obviously he had no intention of being left in a room _with_ Apep but _without_ Harry.

Despite the morning's drama, it wasn't until they were in the change rooms that it finally sunk in that Draco had bought his way onto the team again, and this time onto _Harry's _team.

'We will trounce the other teams with these brooms!' Flint said gleefully, whacking Draco on the shoulder.

'A broom doesn't make a player.' Harry pointed out, suddenly cold. 'Am I to assume that Draco will be taking Warrington's spot then?'

The team actually flinched under his glare.

'Are you implying I don't deserve the spot?' Draco bristled.

Harry all but growled. 'I'm implying that it is awfully convenient that Warrington suddenly gets offered a job by the same man that bought so many brooms.'

'So you _are_ saying I don't deserve the spot!' Draco yelled.

Harry shrugged, and didn't back down an inch. 'I'm sure your flying will be phenomenal,' Harry let just the tiniest hint of threat in his voice (a trick well learnt from being forced to listen in on Voldemort at so many Deatheater meetings through his scar in the original time-line). 'I'm sure it will be so phenomenal that _not one person_ will _ever_ comment on someone buying their way onto the Slytherin team.'

Draco went bright red, but wasn't going to back down either. 'I could out fly you! And what's wrong with getting new brooms.'

'If you could out-fly me then we wouldn't need new brooms!' Harry growled, 'And I am just pissed that the Slytherin team will be seen as cheapening itself by allowing money to out weigh skill.' Harry could see the team shift uncomfortably, and pushed on, addressing Flint. 'You should have kept the brooms to yourself for the first game with Draco, then brought them out later. Now it's a weakness.'

'There is no way we can lose with these brooms!' Draco whined, although he looked less angry now he realised Harry was angry about image and not specifically his own flying.

'And exactly how is it going to look if we do lose?' Harry snarled.

'We won't!'

'You don't know that!' Harry was mad. He felt just the tiniest bit ridiculous for it, as he had known it was coming, and he was letting quite a few of his morals slip on a daily basis, but he couldn't shake the anger. He felt dirty. He had always been quite wealthy in the magical world, despite the Potter fortune disappearing. Gringotts had given him a massive payout to become their security advisor as a way to stop public panic when it got out Gringotts had been robbed. But for all his wealth, Harry had never waved his money (or his fame for that matter) about to get what he wanted. Even though it was Draco, not him, that was buying their way onto the team, Harry was more than aware that it was possible for Slytherin not to win the house cup, and it would be more than embarrassing for them to lose with such a strong advantage. Harry left the Nimbus 2001 next to his locker and stormed out onto the pitch… only to be confronted with even more problems.

'What do you think you're doing here!?' Oliver Wood flew down and landed in front of Harry, and the rest of the Gryffindor team followed. Harry felt, rather than saw the Slytherin team come up behind him.

'I booked the field today Flint!' Oliver was poking Marcus in the chest with every word. It looked kind of funny, because for all of Oliver's height and muscle, Flint was much bigger. 'This is our practice time! We got up specially! You can clear off!' Oliver continued in outrage.

Flint sidestepped Oliver to avoid the poking.

'Plenty of room for us all.' Flint drawled.

Harry had never noticed it in his original time-line school years, but suddenly he could see the sexual tension that had led the two together once they were out of school and away from house rivalry.

'But I booked the pitch!' Oliver was practically spitting, 'I booked it!'

'Ah,' Flint was oozing calmness to Oliver's anger, 'But I have a signed note from Professor Snape.'

Oliver snatched the note out from flints grasp moments after it was out of his pocket.

_I, Professor S. Snape, give the Slytherin team permission to practice today on the Quidditch field owing to the need to train their new Chaser._

Oliver read it out and Harry sighed, sending a slight glare at Flint. He opened his mouth to point out Slytherin practically cheating again, and again, unnecessarily when there was nothing stopping them from using the free spot tomorrow, but Oliver beat him to talking.

'You have a new chaser? Who?'

The Slytherin team parted, and Draco stepped forward.

'Malfoy!'

Harry spun around at the voice to find Ron, Seamus, Dean and Hermione, there. Ron was the one who had spat Draco's name.

'And that's not all that's new either.' Draco drawled.

Harry snarled out an actual growl, and for once flared his aura on purpose, this time making it decidedly darker than his natural grey. Everyone on both teams flinched, although only the elder students recognized it for what it was. The Weasley twins weren't distracted however.

'Are they-'

'-Nimbus-'

'-2001's!?' they bounced of each other.

The focus moved back to the brooms.

'The very latest model. Only came out last month,' said Flint carelessly, flicking a speck of imaginary dust from the end of his own. But Harry could sense the unease below the mask. 'I believe they outstrips the old Two Thousand series by a considerable amount. As for the old Cleansweeps' – he smiled nastily at Fred and George, who were both clutching Cleansweep Fives – '_sweeps_ the board with them.'

Harry could, he supposed, see the need for the move. Now that the brooms were out the Slytherins had no choice but to flaunt them. He sighed and gritted his teeth, interrupting Malfoy who was no doubt going to take a jab at Weasley wealth.

'I've heard that Puddlemere has paid out of the twelve year contract with Cleansweep 350's, finally admitting that Nimbus is a class of it's own.' Harry could feel the Slytherin's shock, but he wasn't stupid, and he could play political if needs must. He was just going to make sure that they damn well won.

The twins bristled at first, but it hadn't been a direct attack on their wealth, just their brand choice. The Nimbus 1000 was a similar cost to the brooms they had, and the 2000 and 2001's similar to the 350's. They seemed to acknowledge that. Hermione however, knew very little about Quidditch (her biggest flaw in Harry's opinion) and went on the attack.

'At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to _buy_ their way in.'

Harry opened his mouth to react, but Draco beat him to it.

'Shut up, you filthy little mudblood!'

The reaction was instant, however no one but Harry could have predicted it. Despite hating his mother for his own reasons he _had_ loved the idea of her for years, and thought blood prejudice was beyond stupid anyway. He had had a long day the previous day, and little sleep. He agreed with Hermione, and he was pissed at Draco and reacted on instinct. There had been yelling from the moment of the slur, but complete silence descended as Harry's fist connected with Draco's jaw. Hard.

The crack seemed to echo around the field, and Harry was sure that he'd broken both his hand, and Draco's jaw. Draco had been dropped to the ground, and was now staring up at Harry in shock… As was pretty much everyone else. Harry may look little, but his first ten years with Dudley's gang had drilled him very well for how to take, and give, a solid punch.

'Don't you dare utter that slur in front of me.' _or_ _at_ _Hermione_. Harry added silently, she may not be _his_ Hermione, but in that moment it hadn't mattered, and he knew that it had originally hurt _his_ Hermione, despite her saying it didn't matter what a Malfoy thought, so it would probably hurt this one too.

No one seemed to know what to do or say, and Harry was content to stand their seething, but slowly the world caught up with him. He had just made a huge statement to Slytherin that would have massive effects on the internal politics. He wasn't planning on letting anyone call anyone a mudblood, but he had intended on having firmer ground under his feet before he became so obvious about it.

'You'd better be damn flyer on a broom Malfoy, otherwise I'll buy the team a second set of brooms just so I can kick you off.' Harry said it without rancor, and reached down to pull Malfoy to his feet using his left hand. 'Come on. I was already in a foul mood. It obviously just isn't my day to be playing Quidditch, and thanks to my early morning temper I need to see Pomfrey before I'll be catching any snitches.'

To his complete surprise Flint followed him. He was practically dragging Draco, who still seemed to be in shock, so the Slytherin team didn't have much choice but to follow half their numbers. Harry felt his lips twitch into a smile as he heard Ron whining as they walked away.

'But he's a _Slytherin_! I'm not meant to like him!'


	5. Chapter 5

**FIVE**

'Don't go to the hospital wing. I'll get the Professor. This has been public enough.' said Flint once they were out of earshot.

Harry winced. 'Sorry. It's been one hell of a morning.'

Draco went to open his mouth but Rebo Nott stopped him. 'Don't talk. You'll only make your jaw worse, and trust me when I say you _do not_ wish to experience having your jaw vanished then re-grew.'

After that they walked in silence back to the common room, Draco seething and sending Harry dirty looks. Once they were inside the older members forced them in a beeline towards the main chairs. Harry tensed when he saw Grace Weitts there. This was going to be huge. He swore under his breath.

'What on earth happened to you?' Her voice was sweet and smooth, but Harry wasn't deceived. One of the biggest rules in Slytherin was to protect their own collectively and to put on a united front to the school, second only to _snakes don't hurt snakes_. Harry winced.

'I punched Draco in front of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.'

'Oh?' her tone demanded explanation, but was surprisingly mild.

'He reacted to an entirely fair comment in a way which insulted my sensibilities.' Harry drawled. Draco reacted instantly.

'It wasn't a fair- OW!' He cut himself off and nursed his jaw. Harry felt a moment of smugness.

'Yes it was. You bought your way onto the team. Whether you deserve to be there or not is superfluous now. You have made it perfectly clear to anyone with eyes that Slytherin is more interested in money than skill.' And that was a jab designed specifically for Weitts ears. The Weitt family had always prided themselves on their _skills_ to earn their way, never the reverse. Harry hadn't meant to make a political move until next year, but by punching Draco he had. Grace recognized the jab.

'His reaction…?'

'He called Granger a mudblood.' Harry said it calmly, with little inflection, but his body language screamed defiance.

As far as Harry knew there had only been one Slytherin King or Queen in history that wasn't a pureblood, and Riddle was a world of his own. Harry didn't have the backing of being an heir to Salazar Slytherin, so he would already be pushing it as a half-blood. He had an advantage in that his father was the pureblood, so he maintained a pureblood name, but Lily Evans wouldn't be forgotten. And despite her treachery in faking her own death and abandoning him, Harry didn't want her to be forgotten. Harry had every intention of dragging the Slytherins kicking and screaming to the realization that someone's magic did not come from their parents status.

'A mudblood.' Grace repeated, her eyes flickering towards Draco for a moment, before settling back on Harry.

Harry met her gaze straight on, and when he felt her aura flicking over his to try and make him deferent, he raised his chin a little and let his own flare back. This time he kept it naturally grey, but put enough strength behind it that Riddle would have had doubts. He had been keeping tabs on the strength of people's magic over the last year whenever there were fights. He didn't want exactly how strong he was to be known, but he wanted top spot in Slytherin, so he had let his aura be just stronger than that of the strongest. Grace actually took a step forward, drawn in, before she collected herself.

'Why does that term offend you?' She demanded an answer, but was giving him a chance to explain himself as well. Harry almost laughed in glee. It wouldn't look like much to an outsider, but it was as good as announcing him her heir. She _should_ have easily brushed him off or outright demanded a punishment for him.

'Because while I agree that muggles are _nothing_ compared to us, a child should **not** be judged on their parents.' Harry's voice practically growled at that, his feeling strongly linked now that he knew he was abandoned, not orphaned, plus the stigma of being a Slytherin Potter. He didn't _really_ agree about muggles, but you can't win a war in one speech. Harry took a deep breath and centered himself, then continued.

'It is that attitude that makes muggleborns wish to distance themselves from our world and our heritage. Granger is a witch. She has magic. Her children will have magic, and if she is taught by attitude not to learn about a culture she is new to, then her children will follow. We are loosing the olde ways because there are not enough of us compared to the new blood. I will not have that lost because of petty attitudes that make a muggleborn more likely to return to the muggle world where they only become a risk to the secrecy of our society… And derogatory terms are a pathetic mask for bitterness regardless.' Harry couldn't help but add the last.

'Fifty points to Slytherin.'

Harry nearly jumped out of his skin. He hadn't meant it to be when he started, but his speech had been passionate and involved. For all the political moves, he really believed in what he was saying. He didn't think that muggles were pathetic, but he knew they were scared of magic, and could easy lash out to harm it. And the Olde Magicks _were_ slowly being banned or lost because rituals were seen as Dark to those who they were never explained to. Beyond that he also believed that the insult was filth.

He had been so involved that he hadn't heard Snape arrive, nor noticed that almost the whole house was there watching the battle. Much to his surprise, quite a few heads were nodding, and while just as many looked skeptical, none were actively voicing their disapproval.

Grace Weitts had a smug but calculating smile gracing her lips.

'I believe both Harry and Mr. Malfoy need medical attention sir.'

Harry actually did laugh that time. First and last names. Damn, he would never in a million years have expected Grace's approval, especially in that… but it was going to make things a lot easier.

'Indeed.' Snape drawled. 'Everyone out.' It was a barked order, and the common room was half cleared before Snape had taken the seven or so steps across to Harry. The only person who remained besides himself and Draco was Grace. She gave her head of house an approving nod, then left as well. As the head of Slytherin Snape held a great deal of respect, but the king or queen held the final word within the walls of the house.

Snape went to attend Harry first, due to politics, but Harry gestured to Draco. A numbing charm and a swelling reducing charm were cast before Draco was handed skel-e-grow, and he took it all silently. Harry couldn't have asked for an easier take-over. Draco may still hold sway over everyone in-house for next year, but he hadn't been able to defend himself because of his jaw, and he'd essentially just lost to Harry, with head of house and Queen-Slytherin's backing. Draco could have all the political moves in the world, but he would have to get an outright win over Harry under his belt to win the top spot.

'You tosser.' Draco offered, once his jaw was manageable again, but for the moment the complaint was companionable, the politics saved for later when everyone was around to watch. It probably helped that Harry had made no _obvious_ attempt on the Slytherin hierarchy, something nearly every other first year tested out just in case.

'Sorry, my temper was atrocious this morning.'

'You don't regret hitting me though, do you?' Draco demanded.

'No. And I'll possibly do it again if I hear you calling anyone mudblood.'

Draco sneered, but didn't rebut.

'You are quite like your father.' Snape said quietly. Harry was sure he actually meant it as some sort of compliment, which totally threw him for a loop until he remembered the scene that caused Snape to lose Lily's friendship.

'I don't know my parents sir.'

Snape didn't reply to that, nor apparently notice the tense. 'You will both serve a detention for this on Thursday, or write me a twelve inch essay by ten this evening about how both of you were wrong in your actions.'

They both nodded.

Through all the mornings mess they had missed breakfast entirely, and would have had to run to make it to class. As it was Defence Harry wasn't at all enthusiastic, so after collecting Apep, Harry told Draco to wait for him in the common room, and ducked to the kitchens getting them both some fruit and some toast. Draco seemed wary taking it, but his hunger won out, and they walked together (slowly) to Defence.

'Sorry I didn't give you warning about my likely reaction.' Harry conceded.

'I won't mention it again in front of you.' Draco conceded. Harry sighed, he supposed it was better than nothing. He was pretty sure Draco was going to want revenge, but for now they were letting by-gones be by-gones.

Defence was just as atrocious as Harry remembered. Lockheart had teased them about wanting to make an entrance, then handed them the ridiculous quiz.

_1. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color?_

_2. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition?_

_3. What, in your opinion, is Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest achievement to date?_

On and on it went, over three sides of paper, right down to:

_54. When is Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday, and what would his ideal gift be?_

Harry groaned, but set to work. He would have to ensure Lockheart wasn't the one setting the end of year exam, as even his desire to get a one-up on Voldemort wouldn't be enough to make him study a single one of Lockheart's books. He wrote down the shortest, preferably one-word answers, before pulling out his book on Arithmancy and burying himself nose deep. This got him a rather odd look from Daphne and Theo, who were sitting either side of him, but the charmed cover from the porno book made it look like what Harry wanted it to (Lockheart's _Magical_ _Me_ as hiding from Lockheart was more important than covering from his friends), not the Arithmancy text it was. With a sigh, he lowered the book so they could catch a glimpse of the inside. Other than that he basically ignored Lockheart the whole lesson. He couldn't help being accosted by the man outside class, but in it he was _not_ going to be playing along.

Lockheart tried to get Harry to come to the front to help with the acting, but Harry was no longer an easily cowed twelve year old, not matter how much he might look it.

'Harry! I bet you'll be thrilled at the chance! Come on down.'

It took Harry a moment to process the request, as he'd been deeply absorbed in finding out why seven and thirteen were such strong magical numbers, and hadn't even been listening. When his brain caught up his lips pressed to a fine line.

'Thank you sir, but I believe that there is already enough… _presence_ on the stage without adding my own fuel to the fire. Perhaps Justin, he seems enthusiastic.'

Justin looked more than happy, for some reason, which Harry couldn't fathom.

'Now Harry, no need to be modest, come on over and help.'

Harry started to try and figure out in what way he was supposedly being modest, but just shook it off.

'No, sir. I will not participate. Thank you.'

'Harry! You don't want to lose your house points now do you?'

Lockheart obviously thought he had a strong threat, but Harry had always been stubborn. Besides, he knew if he gave in now, he would regret it for the rest of the year.

'I'll manage their disappointment.'

Lockheart had been on the verge of spluttering, but in the end cut his losses and called on Justin and Susan.

Harry spent the rest of the lesson reading. It turned out that seven was significant in the _magical_ world because it _was_ magic: Earth, Wind, Fire and Water were the elements that made up the physical world, then there was considered to be Life, Death, and magic to make up the wizard's soul. Harry found it particularly interesting that both life and death were considered part of their soul, and had every intention of asking Voldemort about it next time he saw him (not that he expected a sane answer, but you never know).

Harry couldn't have told you the first thing about Lockheart defeating a swarm of grindylows with a sandwich… but he was at least learning something with his time.

Harry thought he'd seen the end of Lockheart for the day, and had managed to get through Potions and Transfiguration amiably, but that was all shattered when he arrived for his detention with Snape. He handed over his essay, ensuring he wouldn't have another detention the next night, but just as he went to pull his homework out there was a knock on the dungeon door, and Lockheart let himself in with a flourish. Harry actually groaned out loud.

Before he knew what hit him, he was being dragged off to Lockheart's office to help sign fan mail. Snape had been less than useless as Lockheart had got permission to take over Harry's detention from Dumbledore himself.

It wasn't until Harry started on the pile of envelopes that he remembered what happened last time during this detention. Harry spent the whole detention on edge, until finally he heard the voice of the Basilisk.

.:Come to me… Let me rip you… let me tear you… let me kill you…:.

Harry let his eyes close and sighed.

The Diary was at Hogwarts.

The Chamber of Secrets has been opened.

The Diary was at Hogwarts.

He had to kill a bloody basilisk again.

_The Diary was at Hogwart_s!

Harry quickly brought Lockheart's attention to the time and left, but he didn't go to the scene of the crime. He pulled on his invisibility cloak and headed straight down to Hagrid's hut. He needed to get himself a rooster before Ginny- or whoever it was- killed them all. He soon had one in a conjured cage under a sleeping spell. He would feed it some dreamless sleep once back in the dorm.

.:Master… That-:.

.:I thought I asked you to call me Harry?:. Harry sighed. Apep tightened slightly around him to show his displeasure.

.:You did. But you are my master. …The voice master... It was a Great Voice!:.

.:It is a Basilisk:. Harry gave in on the name. Apep kept slipping up anyway, he was sick of the argument. .:I will have to kill it:.

.:WHAT!?:.

.:It in the control of a… man who is trying to kill me:.

.:You have many people who wish you dead:.

.:Mostly just one, but he has a lot of different faces:.

Apep stilled for a long moment, and didn't talk again until Harry was almost back in their dorm.

.:It is a great crime to a snake, to kill our king:. Apep shuffled restlessly until his head poked out and he could bend around and look Harry in the eyes. .:But if he is threatening you, then I will help:.

Harry felt a great warmness swell up in him. Apep didn't know Harry Potter, or his proper story. Apep was choosing to side with Harry, just Harry.

.:That means a lot:.

'Harry!' Theo burst into the room quickly followed Blaise, and much to his amusement, Daphne. Her eyes flowed slowly across the room, wrinkling at the more messy beds, but finally resting on Harry… and Apep, who was inches from his face. She didn't react as strongly as the boys had, but she suddenly went deathly still. Harry wasn't even sure if she was breathing. There was a long awkward moment, before she let out a long sigh then stepped forward as if nothing had happened… Almost.

'Are you the heir to Slytherin?' She demanded.

Harry smirked. 'And what if I am?'

She eyed him for a long moment before rolling her eyes. 'No, threatening stray students isn't your style. You would have just done it without the warning. So do you know who it is?'

Harry blinked for a moment, had the message already gone up? That was early. Apep turned around to Harry.

.:I like her master, are you going to life-mate with her?:.

Harry blanched. To him Daphne was just a _child_.

'Gods no!'

'You don't know who it is? We will have to do some research then.'

It took Harry a moment to remember that they couldn't understand Apep, and to be glad he had replied in English. He opened his mouth to explain that he _did_ know who it was… but then thought better of it. Daphne soon got up to leave, after some disparaging comments about male hygiene. Just before she got to the door she paused.

'Oh and Harry?'

'Yes Daphne?'

'When did you get a snake?'

'The summer before first year.'

'Oh. Have you always carried him wrapped around you like that?'

'Yep.'

'Right.' She blanched just slightly under her mask, but didn't comment further.

By the time Harry went to sleep he was exhausted. He hadn't even dealt mentally with the fact that he now definitely had a basilisk to kill. It wasn't until right as he was drifting off that he realised he must have done something to change the world to that the writing went up early… he fell asleep worrying about how much might change.


	6. Chapter 6

**SIX**

The next morning there was a heavy air about the school. Harry noticed he was getting many suspicious looks, and everyone, even the Slytherins were skirting about him in the hallways. They had Herbology first up, and were moving on to re-potting the mandrakes. Harry had managed to lose Slytherin ten points because he had demanded to know why they couldn't just cast _engorgio_ on the pot, and add more soil around the side. Apparently this was too logical for wizards. Sprout had told him to sit the lesson out, so Harry had spent the two hours in the corner reading up on theory while the rest of the class completed the practical.

It was because of this that he made a rather startling discovery. Mandrakes were expensive. _Really_ expensive. The cost of the nimbus 2001's that Lucius had bought for the Slytherin team would probably equal about three mandrakes, even as seedlings. Harry's eyes darted around the class. There were easily thirty mandrakes in this class alone, and he knew that the other half of his year were potting their own. So the question arose: Who was willing to pay so much money for such expensive plants, when the lessons on them could have been learnt just as well with one or two mandrakes per class just as easily? But more importantly, who knew they would be needed this year? Because surely it was just too big of a chance to be coincidence.

Harry was preoccupied for the rest of the day. Several times Apep had to squeeze him tightly to get his attention because someone was talking to him. He spent the majority of dinner searching out the faces of all the first years, but most of them looked much as they did when they arrived. There were two exceptions. Luna Lovegood, and Daniel Grimms from Hufflepuff. Harry had no idea how to approach Grimms, but he made a beeline for Luna after dinner.

'Miss Lovegood, may I have a word?'

Harry watched as her year-mates stiffened, but then let it go. They were recognizing Harry as a threat, but were leaving her to the supposed wolves. Luna, as always, seemed completely unfazed.

'Okay Harry Potter.'

'Must you use my full name?' Harry complained, but motioned to an alcove. Luna just smiled serenely at him.

'Have you been writing in a strange diary Luna?'

Harry would have gone for subtlety, but he trusted Luna above almost anyone.

'No. Should I find one to do so? Wrigglebee mites are known to prefer people who keep diaries.'

'Definitely not! In fact, if you do, it would be best if you brought it to me immediately!'

'Okay Harry. Say, does this have anything to do with the weeping trollywumps intention to take over the world.'

Harry's lip twitched. 'Not this time Luna.'

'Oh. I wonder if it would be so bad… a world run by the trollywump?'

'It would be if they were always weeping, couldn't be a very happy world.'

Harry smiled for a second, then noticed Luna's silver moon earrings were missing.

'Where are your earrings?'

'I suspect the Nargles took them.'

'Luna…'

'You don't think Nargles are real do you? Well you're wrong!' Luna turned to walk off, but Harry grabbed her wrist to stop her.

'Nargles aren't the only things that steal. Who took your earrings?'

Luna deflated a little, but her serene smile was soon back in place.

'You are a good person, Harry Potter.'

And then she slipped from his grip. Harry sighed, then called after her. 'You could just call me Harry!'

Harry took advantage of already being alone in the hall to slip on his invisibility cloak. He had the sleeping Rooster in his pocket (He still thought one of the best spells he'd ever learnt was _sumptspatio_ - how to make something's insides be bigger than it's outsides), and had also spent a good deal of summer learning more about blood warding.

Harry had come to the conclusion that myrtle's bathroom was under a blood ward quite early on. Dumbledore seemed to have a propensity towards them. The only thing was that he was almost certain that it wasn't Dumbledore's blood, and he didn't know whose it was. Either way, it wasn't an inhibiting ward, it was an informative one, so it didn't matter as he could still enter, just if he tripped the ward Dumbledore would know. Unfortunately for Dumbledore, Harry had made somewhat of a study of bloodwards, and knew a way around it. It was the same way Sirius Black had entered the castle wards… or would. Or close enough.

Harry had been devastated to find out that after being exposed to so many crucio's, his magical connections had been somewhat blocked, meaning he would never be able to become an Animagus like his dad. He was much less upset about that now, and stopped to wonder for a moment if he had already been under too many crucio's to do so with his new body, or if it would be worth giving a go. He brushed it aside as he reached the edge of the ward. Sending out a proximity award he disillusioned himself, then set Apep down.

.:Make sure not to poison me:.

.:I will be careful, but soon we should do an immunity ritual:.

Harry pushed that thought aside for later, then promptly time-transfigured himself into a twig. Apep picked him up in his mouth and carefully carried Harry into myrtle's bathroom, where the transfiguration wore off.

'That,' Harry decided, 'Was decidedly unpleasant.' Apep just laughed.

Harry looked around, wand out and ready to use the spell he'd found to temporarily banish ghosts, but Myrtle wasn't in.

Then Harry made his way towards the sinks. .:Open:.

There was a great groaning and stone sliding against stone, and then before him, the chamber was open. Taking a deep breath, Harry jumped, hissing .:Close:. seeing the light above him diminish… He really hoped he would be able to get back out.

There was a lot more slime on the way down, Harry could only assume it was because the Basilisk hadn't been up and down enough to scrape it all off yet. He landed with a 'thump' on a pile of rodent skeletons.

.:Maybe I should bring Pettigrew down here:. He groaned.

.:It smells of her:. Was all Apep commented.

.:Her?:.

.:Your Basilisk is female:.

.:She is not _my_ Basilisk!:.

.:Suuure master:.

.:Brat:.

Harry made his way through the tunnels from memory, and was glad to know he could still remember. Soon the entrance came into view, and Harry stepped forward again.

.:Open:.

As the outer serpent circled unlocking the rest Harry snorted. .:You would think Salazar could come up with a better password:.

Apep didn't answer, and Harry could sort of understand why. The last time he'd been down here he was highly stressed, and focusing just on survival. This time, being much more aware of his magic and the magics in his surroundings, the snake magic hit him much heavier. If Apep's squirming were anything to go by, he was in the same boat.

.:Wow:.

Harry stepped through the portal, only to jump back and slam his eyes closed. The Basilisk was curled up in the middle of the chamber, luckily with her eyes shut.

The noise of Harry tripping backwards alerted her enough to wake up.

.:Hello. Are you another friend?:.

Harry stood, eyes shut, backed against the wall… gaping.

.:Are you killing the students?:.

.:No, but I wish to. I am so hungry!:.

Harry's mind was going a thousand miles a minute, and still couldn't process the situation.

.:You smell like Rooster:. Her tone was rightly accusing.

Harry felt Apep stick his head out of Harry's shirt. .:We have come to kill you, oh great one:.

That finally did it. Harry burst into uncontrollable sobs. They were half fear and half laughter. He hadn't realised exactly how much returning to the chamber would affect him, but he wasn't taking it well. The fact that the Basilisk had sounded so excited at the prospect of a new friend, and so… lonely, had thrown Harry for a loop.

'Bloody hell.' He groaned. 'Stupid hero complex.'

.:What is your master saying?:. The Basilisk asked Apep.

.:That I'm an idiot… I won't kill you. The rooster will only wake if I tell it to.:. Harry found his thoughts swinging back to amusement as he realised he was echoing Riddle.

.:I think I should eat you:. The Basilisk decided. Harry blanched.

.:I'd prefer if you didn't. I'll get you some food:.

.:The other speaker said that as well:.

.:Do you know their name?:.

.:…Tom. Some. He has been here before… but he left me:.

.:He didn't have much choice:.

Harry couldn't believe it. He was consoling a Basilisk and defending Tom Riddle.

.:What is your name?:.

.:Belleza:.

.:It's nice to meet you:. said Harry, unsure if he meant it.

.:You reek of fear human:.

.:Bravery is not an absence of fear. I will bring you food, but I need you to stop attacking the students:.

.:I must do the bidding of the heir. I have no choice:. She sounded sad.

.:Then I must kill you:.

.:I do not wish to die. I can ensure that they are only stoned:.

Harry felt a great deal of alarm, until he realised she meant petrified.

.:The owners of the school will wish to hunt you:.

They descended into silence for a moment, until Harry got the shock of his life.

.:You have very pretty eyes, oh great one:.

.:Of course, snakeling:.

'APEP!' Harry was so startled he dropped into English.

.:What?:.

.:You looked into her eyes?! Why didn't you die?:.

Harry could feel both Apep and Belleza bristle.

.:A snake does not harm another snake. You are wearing Salazar's declaration, I can feel it on your robes. Are you not from the house of Slytherin?:.

.:You mean _that_ is why there is that house motto!?:.

.:What on earth are they teaching you up there? Too much influence from mugsiallas:.

.:Mugsiallas?:.

.:Yes… what did young Tom call them… muggllies?:.

.:Muggles?:.

.:Yes. The name has changed:.

.:There is nothing wrong with muggles!:.

.:They fear us. We are not safe with them:.

Harry couldn't well debate that, so he let the matter drop for now. Besides, he was reminded of Tom.

.:I must ask you not to tell Tom that I came here:.

.:I cannot lie:.

.:But if he doesn't ask, do you have to tell him?:.

Belleza seemed to think it over for a moment. .:No. I will keep your secret child. But you must bring me food:.

Harry sighed as he made his way back to the dorms nearly two hours later. That had gone nothing like he had hoped. And now he had to figure out a way of stopping anyone from dying without killing Belleza. He wasn't sure how much he could trust Belleza to hold her tongue either.

'Bloody hell.' He said, running his hand through his hair. The night was meant to make things easier, not harder.

He had certainly been given a lot to think on. Unfortunately Belleza couldn't recognize the person who was bringing the diary into the chamber as anyone other than Tom. She tried to explain that she saw things differently, not in shapes and clear images so much as feelings and colours when it came to the heir. Apep said he had experienced something similar once, but he could only see like that sometimes. Harry suspected she was seeing their magic. She did have a long talk with Harry about the goings on in the school however. She suggested that the blood-wards may have been in place since last time the Chamber was last opened, and was shocked so little time had passed. Apparently she usually slept for a few centuries before awakening again. She was unimpressed with his schooling too, when he mentioned he'd studied wards outside of class, she had been furious. There was a long list of subjects that had been removed from the curriculum. Some she could understand, but the last time she woke healing, politics, ritual studies, weapons training, dueling, magical traveling, and warding had all been subjects taught to the upper years as electives, and students were expected to take a minimum of five on top of Defence, Dark Arts, Potions, and either Charms or Transfiguration, but not both. Apparently they used two sides of the magical spectrum, and students progressing past the basics should learn one first, and then the other. Harry debated about this, but then realised that most of his friends had been good at either one or the other (even Hermione had really had to work at Charms, she just did it long before class). He himself had managed just fine, but he suspected the horcrux made him an oddity… again. He made a mental note to look up when the other courses had stopped, and to see if he couldn't study for some of them on his own and sit the OWLs and NEWTs.

All in all it had been an interesting conversation. Belleza was a few decades behind the times, but also filled with knowledge from olde magic, as she was nearly 2000 years old. Apparently Salazar Slytherin had come across her in Spain, and had relocated her to the school as she was being hunted. The other three founders had complained, but Salazar had pointed out that he could control her as he had placed a spell on her blood (hence her having to listen to the heir). Belleza promised more stories about her favorite "Sally", but Harry hadn't wanted to stay long as he didn't want anyone to realise he was missing. Much to his amusement, Belleza had just laughed at him for worrying about getting back out through Myrtle's bathroom.

.:Do you think Salazar would have put his entrance in a bathroom? No. That was added later by his descendant when the plumbing was upgraded, but it does not matter. There are three entrances. One through the bathroom, one through the forest, and one through the lower dungeon:.

Harry had taken the lower dungeon and had come out two floors below the common room in a hallway that obviously hadn't been used for centuries, if the five-inch layer of dust was anything to go by. Fortunately it was a simple matter why, as it needed to be entered via a secret passage way. Harry had been momentarily confused to finally find a pass-worded exit to the hallway, only to end in another sealed off corridor, but after getting his bearings he realised it was the secret passage that ran between the dungeons just near the kitchens and the Charms corridor. Harry couldn't help but laugh out loud. At least he wouldn't have to be transfiguring himself into a twig all the time. He wondered if Tom had known.

Harry had promised to come back with food, and could only be glad for the friendship he had with the house elves. He'd gone via the kitchens, and his request for two whole cows hadn't even gotten him a raised eyebrow. In fact the cheeky elves seemed to be _more_ pleased for having to get something slightly more difficult.

Harry found himself waking feeling tired again the next morning, and had to promise himself that he would go to bed early that night. It seemed the surprises just kept coming, however, as when he was sitting down for breakfast he got a complete shock when the post arrived. He looked up to collect his newspaper from the Prophet's delivery owl and pay, only to see Hedwig soaring across the room. He felt a giant swell of jealousy for a moment, before he let out a gurgled laugh that had the Slytherins giving him odd looks. Hedwig had landed in front of Luna, and was currently stealing some bacon from her plate. A great wave of relief flowed through Harry that Hedwig would be okay.

Just after he was calming down from that shock, Hadwin arrived bearing a letter from the Goblins; it was a reply from Nicolas Flamel. He had signed all the legal documents, and had sworn to take the oath at the first convenience. He asked only to bring Perenell as a bonder. Perenell had signed copies of the files too, and sworn to make the oath as well with Nicolas as the bonder. Harry was more than Happy. Apart from anything else he just wanted one less thing to worry about. Harry sent a reply to say he would meet up with them on the following weekend.

With a much lighter heart and almost a skip in his step he headed down to the pitch for Quidditch practice. He was the only one so cheerful. He had been so absorbed in other things that he hadn't even noticed the weather, and found a despondent team doing drills in the pouring rain. Flint had been planning to call off training, but the team were now extra determined to prove themselves capable of their new brooms after Harry's public spat, so instead they ended up staying out there almost the whole day. Harry didn't mind so much, and after catching the snitch a few times started doing some of the chaser drills. He had just done it because he was getting bored flying around on his own, but he found he was actually an okay chaser. Nothing brilliant, but enough to give him an idea that he would pass by Flint on his own later... or maybe spring it on him during a match to keep things interesting.

By the time they finished training it was late afternoon, and Harry opted to head back to the castle while the rest of the team stuck around the change rooms. He was deep in thought and hadn't really registered what a mess of mud and water he was until Filch was yelling his head off at him. Harry apologized, and quickly banished the mess before Filch could decide to make him do it by hand. Harry had forgotten about Filch being a squib however, causing the man to yell at him even more for using magic in the hallways. He had lost Slytherin another five points, but that was becoming normal. The only thing it was really doing was make Snape even more vindictive towards the other houses, and give more points to his Slytherins. Having discovered that Harry knew quite a bit of information above his brewing level, Snape had taken to giving a ten-question quiz at the beginning of every class, with 15 points reward to the best scoring answers. Harry had won every single one so far, much to the anger of both Draco and Hermione.

In the end Harry was rescued from Filch's lecture by Nearly-Headless Nick. Surprisingly the Ghost had been perfectly friendly, and had done so actually knowing that Harry was a Slytherin. Nick had pointed out that he himself got on very well with the Bloody Baron, and there was no reason for him to concern himself with living politics when he had too much to worry about already with dead ones. Unfortunately Harry didn't catch himself in time to remember why Nick was so down last time, and a few minutes later Harry walked away depressed in the knowledge that he would be attending the deathday party again. He made a huge mental note to take food, and practice up on his smell numbing charm.


	7. Chapter 7

**SEVEN**

One of the disadvantages of being friends with so many purebloods, is that they already _knew_ what things such as a deathday party would be like, and merely laughed at Harry for getting sucked into going to one. That it was for the _Gryffindor_ ghost only added salt to the wounds. He considered asking Luna, but had noticed that Ginny was hanging out with the Ravenclaw quite a bit, and wanted to encourage anyone who wanted to be Luna's friend to do so.

In the end, he decided to go alone, and spent the majority of the party standing talking to Peeves and the Bloody-Baron, who had an unexpectedly good sense of humor. Much to his surprise, Harry actually found himself enjoying the party and found that being the only living soul there, quite a few ghosts were interested in talking to him, whereas they had been intimidated by three living souls. Harry found out some interesting stories and found himself glad that he had come. It was much more enjoyable with a solid warming charm. Because he had thought to bring food, he didn't leave nearly so early, so it wasn't until half of the staff came storming in that Harry even remembered there had been an attack this time in the original time-line. Last time this had been the first attack too, so Harry hadn't even been sure that it would happen, as to him it already had.

'Mr. Potter!'

Harry spun around to find himself facing Dumbledore, McGonagall, Sprout, Babbling, Hagrid, Snape, and Flitwick. Only the last two didn't look angry, and only Flitwick looked relieved.

'Hello professors.'

Harry noted that all the ghosts had formed a circle to watch.

'Why weren't you at the feast!'

'I didn't wish to go, and Nick asked me here.'

'You do not seriously expect us to believe that do you?' McGonagall said with a patronizing tone. 'What sort of child would rather hang out with the dead on a night of a celebration Feast?'

Harry had been more amused than anything up to that point, but suddenly his mood shifted to cold.

'Perhaps one that doesn't consider the night he was ripped away from his family as a night to celebrate. Besides, Halloween is all hallows eve. It is a night for the dead. You are ruining Nick's party.'

'Harry my boy, is there anything you wish to tell us about your night?' Harry turned to Dumbledore with a blank look.

'I am not _your boy_.'

The twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes faded significantly.

'Mr. Potter, I insist that you admit to where you have been tonight.'

'I have been here.' Harry forced some confusion into his tone.

'Do you have any witnesses? I am afraid that there has been another attack, and this time a student.'

Harry gaped for a long moment, then gestured to the hundred or so ghosts.

'Ah, ghosts have a slightly less solid perception of time. Do you have any _alive_ witnesses?'

The room's temperature dropped quite a bit as most of the ghosts took offense. Myrtle burst into tears and flew from the room.

'No sir.' Harry gritted his teeth.

'Then you will understand that I have to take some house points?'

'Headmaster do you truly believe that is necessary?' Snape interrupted. Harry could see he was seething under his mask. 'The school will see it as a declaration that Potter is the heir.'

Harry however just turned his glare on Dumbledore. 'Oh don't worry professor Snape. I _understand_. It's all political isn't it? Considering you already know who the heir is anyway. Must be distressing… having him get in two years in a row.'

'How do you know that Harry!?' Dumbledore sounded a mixture of worried and grave.

Harry snorted. 'I always have been good at anagrams, and as extreme as Hagrid's taste in pets are, I seriously doubt he is secretly a parselmouth.'

Hagrid looked entirely shocked and embarrassed at being brought up, but offered Harry a small smile for the first time since his sorting.

The majority of the rest of the staff were looking confused, but Harry had no intention of explaining, and he didn't expect Dumbledore to either.

'Perhaps you should take Mr. Potter back to his dormitory Severus?'

'Happy Deathday Nick.' Was Harry's only reply, before following Snape out. Once they were out of hearing Snape proceeded to berate Harry all the way back to the Slytherin common rooms. Fortunately Harry had lots of experience ignoring Snape's rants. The only sign that he was listening at all was to find out who had been petrified. It was Penelope Clearwater. Poor Percy.

Harry did feel rather stupid for blurting out so much information, and no doubt alienating the teachers even more, but any thoughts of his own stupidity were soon blown from his mind as a small first year mentioned that Draco had called out 'you'll be next mudbloods' again upon reading the message on the wall with Penelope petrified in front of it. The fact that Penelope was actually a half-blood didn't seem to faze anyone at all.

Harry himself, was too pissed at Draco to care. He had another yelling bout with him in the dormitory, before heading to bed for his "early night"… of course by that time it was almost eleven thirty anyway.

The next four days had Harry constantly on edge. The school had been informed that Harry lost thirty points the night of the attack, and no reason was given. No one was game to ask a Slytherin, and the whole house was so defensive that they were coming across as aggressive. It was amusing for Harry to note that when in Gryffindor, the _whole_ school had turned on him, now that he was in the house of the sly, instead of brave and _loyal_, his house was supporting him. And it wasn't that they thought Harry was the heir. Grace Weitts had approached Harry's chair in the corner of the common room the night after the attack and outright asked if Harry was the heir.

'Not this time.' Had been Harry's answer, but he had warned her that it would probably get worse. He also told her he was sure it wasn't a Slytherin student who was involved, then refused to say anything more. This had surprised her, but much to Harry's shock, she had simply trusted him without asking. Slytherin (albeit reluctantly for some) followed their Queen.

Outside of the house Harry wasn't so lucky. For some reason Justin Finch-Fletchley seemed to have Decided Harry was out to get him, even though Harry hadn't been part of the Eton conversation this time around. The Ravenclaws, usually rather solitary, had taken the habit of moving closer together every-time Harry went past, and several Gryffindors shot him scathing looks, and occasionally hexes when they thought Harry wasn't watching. Between Apep and an intent ward Harry placed on his school bag which he carried everywhere very few of them got through, but he was soon becoming very good at pulling magic.

Harry had finally got a chance to talk to Daniel Grimms. The poor boy was rather terrified, but eventually admitted that his Gran had died the day after he came to Hogwarts. Harry let Flitwick know, and Grimms stopped shooting him suspicious looks all the time. Unfortunately Harry was now almost certain that Ginny didn't have the diary as she was in a budding friendship with Colin Creevey (almost the only person in the other three houses who was confident Harry wasn't the heir) and Elizabeth Gaulder, and in general fit much more into the role Harry had known as fifth/sixth year Ginny. She was confident and outgoing, and social across the whole school. She also still couldn't get out much more than a small 'meep' anytime Harry was around.

This left Harry at a complete loss. He was sure that Lucius wouldn't have risked an older year, but everyone in his own year were acting much as he remembered them. The Gryffindors and Slytherins were a little off, but Harry was in their house and thus created a disturbance. He didn't know or remember as much about the third years, but none of them looked too warn out. He went to visit Belleza again on the Friday morning, but she couldn't tell him much more about the person, only that they smelt more like Tom than before. She did tell him that they smelt of rooster as well, but Harry hadn't found out about Hagrid's roosters being slaughtered for two days, and by that time the House elves had already washed all the robes and couldn't tell Harry if any had had strange feathers or blood on them.

The stress was building up on Harry with very few tension relievers. The Weasley twins had taken a surprising stand against their house (and Weasleys in general), and had taken to stalking behind Harry in detective uniforms with super large magnifying glasses and notepads (and where on earth they got them Harry wasn't sure) telling him (when he eventually broke and asked) that they were 'searching for residual evil from the heir'. Harry had shocked them a little, when he asked with a straight face if they thought it would be any use in possible pranking creations or destruction of cartoon characters. Harry suspected that in a few days they would be brave enough to attempt to frog march him down the hallways like they had in the original timeline. They clearly didn't think he was the heir.

But by Friday evening Harry had only seen the twins a few times, and the majority of the time he had spent under suspicion or stressing over who it could be. It was Harry's only excuse when he snapped at Draco in the Slytherin common room.

'Well if it really _isn't_ a Slytherin, which I still find doubtful, then it obviously has to be a Ravenclaw.' Draco had been droning on about who he thought it was for ages. Harry had been helping Millicent and Lillian with a Potions essay, as they had been given the same topic, and the group of second years had settled in to Harry's corner (which he had claimed through solitude the year before).

'Who do you think it could be Draco? It isn't Li, Boot, Patil, Entwhistle, McDougal or Brocklehurst.' Daphne listed the purebloods in Ravenclaw.

'Maybe they have been hiding their bloodlines?' Draco said excited. Harry snorted, but the group ignored him.

'Well we know it isn't a Hufflepuff.' Draco continued, but Harry had had enough.

'And just how do you know that?!'

'Well… they're just… _Hufflepuffs_!'

'For gods sake that has nothing to do with it! By that logic it _has_ to be a Slytherin. And why on earth do they have to be in our year anyway? Surely it would make more sense for it to be a first year, as the chamber has only been opened this year.'

The whole group gave him shocked looks. Harry wasn't sure if it was because he had been rather aggressive in his tone, and was usually quite laid back, or because they actually hadn't thought of that. Either way it was getting on his nerves, and he snapped.

'I find this whole thing pathetic anyway, it is quite obvious to anyone who bothers to look who the heir of Slytherin is.'

'And who is that?' Daphne drawled.

'Voldemort!' Harry ignored their flinches. 'How many people do you know who speak parseltongue?!'

Harry slammed his book shut and was about to leave to go to bed when Theo spoke up in a quiet voice.

'Two.'

Harry stilled, he felt the tension of the group increase drastically. He shut his eyes for a moment, but then continued what he was doing.

'Well it isn't me.'

He quickly made his way to the dorm, not wanting to look back and have to explain anything. Apart from anything else he had absolutely no way of explaining it. He now had no idea how he survived that night, and no idea how (or if) he had _really _become a horcrux. Regardless, that was something he was researching on his own, and he wouldn't be sharing that information with anyone. He had already started to stockpile strong pain reliever and dreamless sleep, and had already begun layering his bed with silencing charms and illusionary wards. He had no intention of anyone finding out he had a connection to Voldemort if the man did somehow manage to come back.

He wasn't sure how the Slytherins had found out he could speak Parseltongue, but he wasn't _that_ surprised. With Apep around it was bound to happen that someone would overhear him eventually. He could only hope they would keep it to themselves for a little longer.

That weekend Harry woke early and quickly got dressed in wizard robes and got under his invisibility cloak. When he had helped Bill out with the Hogwarts wards he had been shocked to know that Dumbledore had always been aware of when someone crossed them, even through the secret tunnels. Unfortunately the wards had a major hole (which Bill and Harry had fixed) in that animals (and Animagus) didn't register. As much as he hated it, Harry transfigured himself into a twig again to cross them. The problem would be on the way back, as he couldn't use magic outside the wards without being detected. If it was a Hogsmead weekend he would have been okay, as Hogsmead was included then, but it wasn't so that was a moot point. Harry didn't have much choice, and at least the wards only recognized that _someone_ crossed them, not who.

He had sought out the last of his polyjuice from his secret compartment in his trunk, and back in Patrick Poulkins body, he made his way through the Three Broomstick's floo. He had enough for an hour on either end, but it would wear of during his meeting with the Flamels. Harry was more than a little bit nervous. He really respected Nicolas Flamel, after his excellent lectures the year before, and really hoped that he wasn't about to find himself a new enemy. The Philosophers stone was in his money pouch that only he could reach into, and was tightly guarded by Apep. It was the first time it had been out from under Fidelius since he had retrieved it the year before, and Harry was consciously leaking the darkest aura he could manage to keep people back and wary.

They were meeting in a small hotel in leisure alley. It was rather seedy, but after years of having politicians and the high-up traveling there for clandestine meetings, _The_ _Red_ had so many wards against being followed and overheard that Harry couldn't think of a better place. That didn't stop him from feeling rather dirty as he stepped into a room that was used on a regular basis for odd sex… to meet with the two oldest people on earth.

'Our thief, I assume?' Flamel was dressed in the finest dragon hide robes Harry had ever seen, and did not look at all pleased. Perenell actually appeared more armored, and both had their wands drawn.

'Master and Mistress Flamel. I'm sorry we had to meet like this.' Harry dropped his aura the moment he ensured that they were alone in the room. He was pleased to see both Flamel's relax a little as his aura faded back to his regular grey.

'Erm… shall we get straight to it then?'

'You have our stone?'

'Yes.'

'And how many times have you used it?'

'I haven't.'

That got a rather strong reaction. Both Flamel's seemed to reel in shock for a moment, before becoming more wary.

'You haven't? I hardly believe that.' Perenell's voice was smooth and sweet, and completely defied her stern appearance.

'I can add it in the oath if you would like? Do you mind if we do them now? Can whoever is going first swear to perform their own oath on their memories please.'

Nicolas showed his surprise again. 'Not on their life?'

'It is not your lives I wish to interfere with.' Harry couldn't help but snort at his own statement. 'That is, other than ensuring the safety of your damn stone.'

'I Perenell Joli Flamel, do swear on my memories of this day, that I will perform the unbreakable vow with the man who is not my husband in this room before any of us or our information leaves it. So mote it be.'

Harry felt the magic swell around them and grinned.

'Right then.' He held out his arm. Nicolas grimaced a little, but reached out and took it. They both kneeled. The timing was almost perfect, as Harry felt his skin begin to bubble as the polyjuice wore off right as their skin made contact. Harry's hood still hid his appearance, but it wouldn't last.

Perenell pulled her wand, touching it to where their wrists met.

'Will you, Nicolas Flamel, keep my identity secret, to the best of your ability and up until torture?'

If Flamel was surprised Harry had allowed that, then he barely showed it.

'I will.'

A thin tongue of brilliant flame issued from the wand and wound its way around their hands like a red-hot wire.

'Will you promise not to take revenge, either legal, physical or mental, nor retribution against me or mine?'

'I will.'

A second tongue of flame shot from the wand and interlinked with the first, making a fine, glowing chain.

'And will you, upon the return of your philosophers stone, swear to protect it to my approval, without any help, influence or involvement of Albus Dumbledore?'

'I will.'

A third unique flame shot from Perenell's wand, twisted in with the others, and bound itself thickly around their clasped hands, like a fiery snake. The three glowing lines flared for a moment, then faded. Flamel gasped as the Vow set. His life was now linked to Harry's, and in the afterglow of the magic, his magic registered to whom he had vowed.

'Nick?' Parenell sounded very anxious, but Nicolas smiled for a second at his wife, and she relaxed a little.

The two switched positions and Harry took the same vows with Perenell. As soon as the magic settled Harry dropped his cloak.

'Harry Potter.' Nicolas stated. Harry couldn't detect too much anger in his voice, but he couldn't be sure. He quickly stepped back and opened his cloak, Apep slid out (causing another gasp from the Flamels) and released Harry's goblin pouch. Harry reached in and grasped the stone.

'Swear on your life and magic that you are Nicolas Flamel, owner and creator of the philosophers stone.'

Flamel did.

'Swear on your consciousness at this time that you are here under no external influence, that you are in your right mind.'

Nicolas let out a small bark of laughter. 'Well at least you really are taking the stone's security seriously.'

'That has been the whole point.' Harry smiled lightly. Nicolas swore.

Harry easily handed over the stone.

'How are you going to protect it?' Harry got straight to the point, imagining that the Flamel's probably didn't want much to do with him for long after that. 'Oh, and be vague enough that I wouldn't be able to find it.'

'You are not what I expected, our young Theif.'

'I should hope not.' Harry laughed. 'Call me Harry.'

Both Flamels laughed. 'Harry then. We have a location that is entirely unplottable. Only five people have been there. There are blood wards as well as a complex alchemy formula that has to be solved in order to enter. Dumbledore is one of the people keyed in, however he will not be told that is where the stone will be kept. We already visit there on regular occasions, so it will not be suspicious to visit to collect the elixir. We have a safe room there, which only we know of. Our architect swore not to reveal it, and he has been dead for a little over three hundred years. The safe-room will be going under fidelius with Perenell as secret keeper. Within the room there will be a container of some form, which will be going under fidelius with myself as secret keeper. I am using the Peurcreartis curse, which will attack anyone not an heir to the Flamel line as an extra defence.'

'I'm not familiar with that curse, but the rest sounds excellent. May I suggest you ward against snakes, Animagi and use an intent ward to make it hard for anyone to enter who means harm to the container. Everyone would expect one for the stone and ward against that.'

'It is a curse which increases the persons fears until it gets so extreme that they end up turning themselves in. It is used in most magical museums. An intent ward is an interesting idea. And why snakes?'

'Voldemort was on the back of Quirrell's head. He was in the school to get the stone.'

'So he is back then.'

'Yes.'

'And you have met him again.' This time it was Perenell who asked.

'Yes.'

'You are so young.' She sounded very sad. Harry felt rather guilty, as he was quite a bit older than they thought, but then he realised to them twenty eight was practically infantile.

'I imagine it will not be the last time.' He shrugged, 'And not as young as I was before.'

'The prophecy.'

Harry felt a great swell of anger within him, and his magic actually crackled in the air. Both Flamel's instantly sent out soothing magical auras.

'That bastard told you.'

'Wulfric is-'

'Dumbledore needs to learn that he is not god, and he needs to learn to do so before interfering with my life again.'

'It is not only your life in the balance.' Perenell said soothingly.

Harry snarled. 'You have no idea, _no idea_, what that man has done. You may hate me for forcing your hand, but one day you will be glad I ensured your livelihood was not in the hands of Dumbledore.'

'We do not hate you.' Perenell offered.

'I actually like you quite a bit.' Nicolas chuckled at Harry's startled look. 'I have always had an appreciation for someone who can outwit me. Besides, if you really didn't use the stone then you have excellent morals.'

Harry shook his head. 'Just very little interest in living forever. I don't know how you manage.'

'You are a very odd child. I think I can see why Nick liked you at the school so much.'

Harry laughed. 'I was rather enthusiastic about his lectures. I'm sure that helped. I wish you could have returned to teach this year.'

'I considered it. Wulfric wanted me for the defence post.'

'Ah, I am glad you had more sense than to take a job that has been cursed to remove the professor at the end of the year.'

'Indeed.'

A comfortable silence descended, and the Flamels exchanged looks. 'You would be most welcome to visit with us over the summer. I would like to get to know the child who outwitted our _pierre de philosophes_ defence.'

'Perhaps. I would certainly learn a great deal.'

'You do not sound at all sure.' Perenell pushed.

'I have some strong restrictions to my movements over the summer holidays. I am expected to stay with my relatives.'

'Expected are you? But do you do it?'

Harry laughed. 'I am not at liberty to say. I am afraid I need to go. I have to floo back to Hogsmead and sneak back into the castle.'

'Would you like one of us to apperate you?'

Harry was surprised. For all the talk of Nicolas liking him, he really thought that they must be rather wary and angry about his essentially blackmailing them. After a little consideration he came to the conclusion that if you were going to live for hundreds of years, holding grudges would just become exhaustive.

'That would be greatly appreciated.'

Harry collected his pouch back and downed the second lot of polyjuice.

'Come and stay with us child, if not this summer, then another.' Perenell smiled, and Nicolas offered his arm.

'Thank you for the offer, I shall certainly consider it well. It was lovely meeting you Mistress Flamel.' Harry bowed over her hand, smiled, then took Nicolas' arm. With a quiet crack! They were in Hogsmead.

'I am glad it was you.'

'I am sorry I had to attack sir. It really has been a pleasure meeting you.'

'It has been an experience for us both. Bonne chance Harry.'

Harry parted ways with Flamel, and felt a great weight lift from his shoulders as he snuck back through the shrieking shack.

.:Well Apep, at least that is one thing that went well:.

.:They seemed nice. The female was sending out maternal vibes:.

.:I like them both. I hope Dumbledore doesn't have as much influence as he thinks he does:.

.:Why did they meet with him?:.

.:Dumbledore is a great wizard. Ollivander once said as much to me about Voldemort. There is nothing stopping someone doing the wrong thing from still being a great wizard:.

.:You are sounding very wise master:.

Harry snorted. .:Entirely fluke I'm sure:.

.:Oh, I know:.

.:little horror:. Harry said fondly, rolling his eyes.


	8. Chapter 8

**EIGHT**

Back in the castle things were building up tension. Everyone wanted to know about the Chamber of Secrets and rumors were running rife. Harry was the biggest suspect for Slytherin's heir, but there were some funny ones going around, especially in Slytherin, where Grace Weitts had pretty much made it taboo to suggest it was Harry. Grace hardly ever talked to Harry, but for some reason she seemed to have taken a liking to him. There were few more convenient people to have done so. Several of the older years were obviously wary about Harry, and quite a lot of Slytherin still didn't like him, either because he brought down their Dark Lord, because he was a half-blood, or because he was 'light'. Harry had no doubt that third year and up would be filled with plenty of political battles, and he wouldn't have an easy take-over, as Grace would be gone, but he was amused to see that the more the rest of the school hated him, the less people in Slytherin seemed to have a problem with him. Most of the teachers were turning blind eye to the near-constant bullying that was happening to Harry. The only two who were doing any different were Flitwick, who was now actively calling on Harry much like Snape, asking highly complicated questions and trying to award enough points to make up for his colleagues constant deductions. Snape too was standing up for Harry, although he did so with a pained look on nearly every occurrence. Harry suspected that his desire to see James Potter's child down-trodden was outweighed by the combination of seeing his own house suffer, and seeing Harry as a parallel as himself as the school's most hated Slytherin.

The bullying was stepping up day by day, and eventually Daphne broached the topic one evening after Harry returned to the common room dyed orange and with a large bruise forming on one arm.

'Doesn't it bother you?' She burst out. Theo and Blaise, who were sitting with her sat up and waited for his answer. Harry just shrugged, waving his wand in a complicated jab and fading his skin back to normal.

'Honestly,' Harry thought about it for a moment. 'Not really. I'm used to it mostly, and have other things to worry about or plan over. It will pass.'

And really, Harry wasn't that fussed. It was annoying having to be constantly on the look-out for trouble, but he'd been doing that for years, never able to shake the habits he learnt on the horcrux hunt. He had ten years at the Dursleys being below the bottom of the food chain, and he was used to Hogwarts staring at him, and the magical society hating him. But beyond that, he just had bigger fish to fry. Besides, he was learning some interesting spells.

He was still trying to figure out how to get the diary, and had started researching ways to get the cup from Gringotts. He had been trying to figure out how to get Sirius free, and planning how to let the public find out about the Potters without putting himself under their power. He was trying to figure out who had the diary, and to get that, and needed to find a way to get to Riddle manor and the Gaunt shack to get the ring and remove Tom Riddle (senior)'s bones. He also wanted to find a way to get Frank Bryce, the muggle living there, to move away just in case. All in all, to a 29 year old who was used to Rita Skeeter slamming him in the prophet every other day, a bunch of prejudiced school kids really didn't bother him. It did hurt when Hermione or Ron, or one of his original timeline friends were the ones attacking him, but he would just think of them as they were in the future. Dead, permanently injured, emotionally screwed and none of them talking to each other. He had hated his life in the future, and every moment in the past was invigorating in comparison. Besides, the Gryffindors had recently toned things down a bit. He wasn't sure what had happened, but Ron was a lot less vocal against Harry. Seamus was Harry's biggest anti-advocator now, and that was a lot easier to deal with than Harry's ex-best friend. Hermione seemed to have finally come to terms with the fact that Harry was better at her in pretty much all the subjects. She still rubbed it in a little when she beat him, or knew the answer, and without the golden trio bonding she was still a bit of a know-it-all-snob that annoyed quite a lot of people, but now some of their banter was mostly _almost_ friendly. Neville was still on Harry's side (which was probably helping Hermione's position), although Nev was still much to shy to support Harry in public. It was Hermione and Dean's side-glances towards Neville that told Harry Neville was supporting him in private.

'But they are horrible to you!' Daphne insisted, continuing with her rant against the school, and bringing Harry out of his musings.

Harry shrugged and smiled. 'You guys are alright.'

'Don't you see the way they are all expecting you to turn around and turn into a monster if they stop looking. No one was even pretending to listen to Binns when he answered Bones.'

Harry had been amused earlier that day when Susan Bones had asked Binns about the Chamber of secrets much like Hermione had in the original timeline. Most of the Hufflepuffs had been watching Harry in fear and horror throughout the whole explanation, and Hannah abbot actually feinted when Binns mentioned that no one knew what the monster was and Harry hadn't been able to help but snort loudly.

'Maybe I will. I've always wanted to spontaneously be able to petrify people.'

'Who do you think is doing it? You don't really believe it is the Dark Lord do you?'

'He has to be involved. But I don't think it is him personally.'

'So you think it's a student? It would have to be an upper year for advanced enough magic to petrify people-'

'It's not a spell.'

'-I mean, otherwise Dumbledore or Snape would have been able to fix it-… wait, what do you mean it isn't a spell?!'

Harry shrugged. 'There is a Basilisk in the school.'

Theo, Blaise had returned to their chess game, but with that statement the board went flying and the pieces remained on the floor complaining loudly.

'Wh- what? How do you know?' Daphne said weakly.

'I can hear it talking.' Harry said with a shrug. He had decided last night that if his close friends already knew he could speak parseltongue he wasn't going to hide it. He loved Apep, and wasn't going to le it be some dirty little secret this time around. His friends weren't taking his new approach quite so calmly… or maybe that was the Basilisk.

Harry was getting quite good at undermining Daphne's mask, although in the process he was making it harder for other people to do so, as she grew accustomed to having people (Harry) springing shoking things on her randomly and with no warning.

'You can hear the Basilisk talking.' She deadpanned.

'Yep. She doesn't know who is controlling her.'

'SHE?!'

'Harry mate, have I ever told you you're a bit crazy?' Theo spoke up in a squeaky voice.

'Once or twice.' Harry grinned.

'So you can talk to snakes.' Blaise, as usual, cut to the chase.

'You already knew, didn't you?'

'We suspected. Theo heard hissing from your bed that sounded like conversation between you and your snake. Taking turns and such.'

'Does it bother you? I can not do it near you guys.'

'I'm still not going to let Apep slide all over me like you do, but actually I think that's kind of cool.' Theo said, eyeing Apep's pocket warily.

'I wish I could talk to my familiar.' Blaise agreed. He had a toad. Unlike Neville's he kept his in a tank next to his bed, and it was a magical toad. It kept away nightmares (sadly not visions or Harry would have bought one) and was meant to be good luck. Apep had told Harry that magical toads were not to be hunted either, as their blood would affect the predator stupid enough to eat them and force it into slavery to the magical toads owner. He hadn't told Blaise this, as he suspected Blaise would forfeit his toad in order to force a 'cooler' creature into his control.

'I don't know, Apep can be pretty sarcastic and annoying sometimes.' Harry joked. Apep squeezed Harry's middle.

.:Oi! I was joking!:.

Despite their conversation his three friends jumped a little as Harry switched to parseltongue.

'Wow. Can Apep understand us?' Daphne asked, being close enough to have realised what was happening round Harry's middle.

.:Of course I can silly human. I take back what I said about liking this one. Find a different mate master!:.

Harry snorted at Apep, then looked sheepishly up at Daphne. 'Yeah he can. Apparently he is disappointed in someone so promising not knowing.'

'He thinks I'm promising?' Daphne sounded rather awed.

'Promising for what? Dinner?' Blaise asked with a grin. Harry laughed.

'As a potential nest-mate for me.' He deadpanned. Daphne went instantly bright red.

'Harry!' She groaned, whacking him on the arm.

The four of them dissolved into laughter.

It wasn't until he was lying in bed that night that Harry realised how much of a relief it was to be able to just chat about being a parseltongue, and how nice it was not to have to be constantly ashamed of something about himself.

The weeks seemed to slip away from Harry, and soon it was almost time for the Quidditch season. Flint had been drilling them almost as hard as Oliver Wood had done, and Harry noticed the Gryffindor team was definitely looking to be in a similar situation. It was looking to be a great game. The taunts and pranks against Harry were increasing to the point where even Draco had insisted he was in danger, and had started dragging Harry around with him so Greg and Vince were close by. It was strange being in Slytherin. Because they always kept a united front up as a house, it was nearly impossible to remain at odds with someone, even if you were involved in opposing political play (which was quite common). Harry wasn't, and probably never would be, great friends with Draco, but somehow that made it even stranger. He and Draco had always been at the extreme end of things, and it kept throwing Harry off when Draco greeted him cheerfully of a morning.

Harry was starting to get twitchy, as Slytherin house had decided their seeker needed an escort at all times, and he wasn't getting any time to himself. In his original timeline Harry had ended up being a relatively solitary being. He did spend quite a lot of time traveling with Luna, or with different tutors every day, but mostly he training by himself. He only had a few close friends, and the most socializing he had done was with the Weasleys, mostly Bill and George, but that was usually spread out. The most hours were spent with Luna, but they were comfortable in each others presence, and didn't need to talk a lot.

It had only taken a few days for Harry to snap under the constant surveillance and start sneaking around under his invisibility cloak. He spent a bit of time talking to Belleza when he could (talking to a 2000 year old creature was always interesting), but mostly spent time in the room of requirement studying at NEWT level or higher. He was playing with the idea of creating an entirely separate identity with Harris Noir, and sitting his NEWTS over the holidays (and he was getting bored again in second year classes).

He mostly entered the Chamber of Secrets through the dungeons, as he didn't want to transfigure himself ever again if he didn't have to, but one day coming back from the room of requirement he saw Percy floating around myrtle's bathroom looking suspicious. He was quite sure Percy didn't have the diary, as he would have told after Penelope got petrified, but it was odd that he was hanging around. Harry followed him for a while until myrtle came out and told Percy off for being in her bathroom. Percy had gone a horrific shade of red (as only a Weasley could) and had high-tailed it out of there so fast that Harry couldn't help but laugh out loud. Myrtle had given the empty air where Harry was standing a strange look, then gone off muttering about having too many boys in her bathroom, and how it never amounted to anything good.

Considering Tom Riddle and the Basilisk killed her in once such situation Harry couldn't blame her.

Harry couldn't help but be happy by the Friday the afternoon before the match. He had every intention of putting a stop to the entourage after the match, and even Lockhart's attempts to involve him in the daily torture of role-play classes couldn't bring him down. Lockhart had started involving Harry even when Harry refused to leave his chair, and it was cutting in to his time spent learning Arithmancy. The Gryffindors took great pleasure in laughing at him, and had somehow managed to talk Lockhart into playing out the time he beat a baby Nundu using nothing more than a bludger and three bottles of vodka using Harry as the Nundu. Lockhart spent the whole lesson shooting things at Harry as a way to demonstrate the various ways in which the bludgers had attacked. Harry had been ignoring it quite well until Ron said he wished _real_ bludgers would target Harry like that. Ron had been relatively quite on the verbal abuse front, so the comment actually got enough of Harry's attention to zone back in to the real world for long enough to listen. After that Harry couldn't have focused on reading if his life depended on it.

Dobby's rouge bludgers!

Harry spent the rest of the lesson blatantly ignoring the soft-toy bludgers hitting his face, arms and back, and kept glancing at Draco, enough so that at the end of the lesson the blonde left in a hurry taking Greg and Vince with him. Harry was free of his guards for the first time in weeks and he couldn't even appreciate it. He was too busy trying to decide whether to make Draco stop Dobby from using the bludgers, or whether or not he wanted to risk Dobby doing something even more crazy. Harry barely even noticed as people took advantage of his lonely state in the halls, automatically stepping side to side and dodging the various hexes thrown at him as he made his way to the hall. Marcus Flint nearly had a heart attack when he saw his seeker on his own, but Harry only registered enough of Flint's rave to decide he'd rather deal with bludgers than anything else tampered with (like the players), as they were angry enough.

Harry wasn't so confident the next day down at the pitch. The rain had eased up some, which helped, but it was still there, and Harry was even less confident about out-flying bludgers in the rain. When the bristles of a broom got wet the broom took a more forceful hand to turn it, and while the difference was normally minimal, Harry really didn't want to get his arm vanished again. The mood in the locker room was a little bit similar, though for different reasons. Flint was especially on edge, and was channeling Oliver Wood's spirit, right down to the speech.

'It'll be down to you, Harry, to show them that a Quidditch player really knows how to make the most out of their brooms. I want some serious stunts, and get that snitch or die trying, Harry, because we've got to win today, we've got to.'

Once Harry had pointed it out, Slytherin had realised that a loss with such a big advantage would be an awful insult to their house. Draco had, to be fair, held his own on the field as a Chaser. So much so that Harry couldn't really understand what the blonde had been doing in the role of Seeker in the first place. None of the Slytherin's would admit it outwardly, but this game was _huge_, and they were all very nervous. Flint said something about their being a rep out there to look for possible graduates. Harry couldn't help but be amused, as if it went much like last time, Harry was in for some amazing flying.

'You're a great Chaser.' Harry said quietly, as he noticed Draco was clutching his broom rather tight, and looked even more pale than usual.

'Father is here.' Draco offered, which explained his nerves. 'He's on the school board. Maybe you can meet him.'

'After we win.' Harry said lightly. He didn't really want to meet with Lucius, but he wouldn't mind meeting with Narcissa.

'After we win.' Draco repeated. It sounded almost like a mantra to Harry.

'Is your mother here? She was a Black wasn't she?' Harry watched very carefully, and didn't see a flinch, so either Lucius hadn't told Draco he wasn't the Black heir, or he hadn't known to begin with.

'Er, yeah. How did you know she was a Black?'

'My grandmother was a Black. Your mothers Aunt I think.'

'We're related?!'

'Yep. Second cousins once removed.'

'Then why were you brought up with muggles?' Draco demanded angrily. Harry couldn't help but gape at him.

'Draco, why on earth would they put the person destroyed Voldemort, in the power of one of Voldemort's supporters? That's ridiculous.'

'My dad was under the imperious!' Draco raised his nose snidely.

'You can't get the mark not under your own free will.' Harry said quietly. Draco stilled.

'You have no proof.'

'I'm not trying for any. But even if you accept the imperious, your father had still been under some sort of influence of Voldemort - oh do stop flinching! – for some time.'

'I suppose.' Draco said mulishly. Suddenly Harry realised Draco was sulking! Actually sulking about Harry _not_ _living_ _with_ _him_. Harry couldn't help but laugh.

'Come on. Let's go kick some Gryffindor ass!'

Draco looked up in shock, and paled again, but at least Harry had distracted him for a bit. Harry would know not to avoid meeting Lucius too, now that he knew Narcissa was here. He needed to see how much Black blood meant to her.


	9. Chapter 9

**NINE**

'WELCOME! To the first match of the season! - Gryffindor! versus Slytherin. - Now for those of you have had you're head under a particularly large rock, you are in for a good show. The slimey snakes-'

'JORDON!'

'Sorry professor - the er… entirely trustworthy and faultless Slytherins have had a new member added to their ranks quickly following the addition of some more valuable assets - Yes that's right folks. Thos really are seven brand spanking new Nimbus 2001's, but the Slytherins will have to back that up with real talent.' Harry felt Draco tense next to him as they mounted their brooms.

'Damn it Malfoy, I will personally skin you if you freeze. Are you seriously going to allow a Gryffindor to get to you?' Harry hissed just loud enough for only Draco to hear. It seemed to have enough effect for Draco to pull his blank mask up, and Draco soon joined him in the air looking rather more determined.

'Playing for Gryffindor we have Wood, Spinnet, Johnson, Bell, Weasley, another Weasley aaaaand Towler! - The Gryffindor team are in fine form this year, Wood has been training harder than ever, I have had the pleasure of having the dorm to myself every other night, although the distinct lack of such B.E.A-utiful company in the- Sorry professor.'

Harry couldn't help but laugh as McGonagall beat Lee over the head with a Quidditch rules pamphlet.

'As I was saying… It's going to be an interesting game. Playing for Slytherin we have Bletchley, Flint, Montague, Malfoy has _acquired_ the third chaser spot, Loki and Nott as beaters, and Potter, this time with his upgrade from Nimbus 2000 to 2001. Rumor has it Potter tried to refuse to play on the new brooms, but gave in to team pressure. Does he really feel that he is so good the upgrade wasn't worth it? We'll have to wait and see.'

Harry was seething. True, he hadn't wanted to fly on the 2001, but only because he liked his broom, and had a year getting it adjusted to him. He gave in eventually, but the argument hadn't been about being a better player, it had been about a more fitted broom. He was so busy glaring at Lee that he missed Flint and Wood have their usual try-and-break-hands-hand-shake, and almost missed Hooch's starting speech. Fortunately Lee commented.

'Right, the quaffle is released… and the game BEGINS! - Malfoy is straight into the fray, and has managed to take the quaffle -Passes to Flint - to Montague - back to… Malfoy scores. Ten points to Slytherin. Come on Gryffindor!'

Harry could practically see the tension leave Draco. That play had been important. Harry's attention didn't last long. Towler was making a dive. Harry flew up instead of following him. He couldn't see the snitch, and Towler had more weight. When he was directly above Towler he dove.

'I say! Have the seekers spotted the snitch already?'

Harry was directly behind Towler, and noted that the older boy was slowing down slightly. Harry was catching up having taken the dive from higher, but he was catching up too fast. He almost laughed when he realised what Towler was trying to do. Unfortunately for Towler, Harry had always been a bit of a dare devil. He had never tried this move, but couldn't help himself. Towler kept going directly down, only pulling out at the last minute. Harry however kept going, but pulled his legs up to the middle of the broom, putting his full weight behind the turn, then, with the continued momentum he swung around the broom to pull up, knocking Towler off his broom because he had been so close.

'Oops!' Harry yelled over his shoulder. 'I guess the snitch must have been lost in my turning circle, hey Towler?'

'Ouch!' Lee was cringing. 'Looks like Towler was trying to trick Potter with his own tricks. Potter just pulled a Kabanorti. Wronski made the same error once in training against his chaser Kabanorti, who is rumored to have taught Wronski the move. - Back to the chasers our beautiful Gryffindor girls are giving the Slytherins a run for their money… or their brooms as the case obviously is.'

Harry knew the bludger only started following him after he stopped moving, so even when Katie Bell ran into Miles full speed, he didn't stop. Harry was hoping for the bludgers to hold out, but no such luck. Fred (or whichever twin Lee called Fred) hit a bludgers towards Draco as he snatched a pass from Alicia, but the bludgers swerved.

'Fred-George-Fr… Weasley! What are you doing? The Gryffindor Beater just put an excellent spin on that hit, but missed the target and - Noo Slytherin score again - Forty-Thirty to Slytherin - Bletchley has the quaffle, passes to Flint who rolls missing that nicely _aimed_ bludgers from the _other_ Weasley. Malfoy and Bletchley try for a Rustler Formation, Flint falls in and - Yes! Wood saves it. Passes to Johnson, who passes to- OUCH! Nott's aim is true as well. That looked like it hurt.'

Harry was trying to remain aware of the game, and was relying on Lee's commentary to tell him which end of the pitch to expect more players. The bludger had been following him for nearly three minutes before anyone noticed. The first was Miles, who waved frantically to Marcus for a time out. Unfortunately Flint was focused on the scoring at the other end. Harry managed to fly past Nott in a dive, but as he expected, when Rebo hit the bludgers away it rocketed around the stadium and back at Harry. Loki soon caught on, but while the two of them kept the bludgers only _mostly_ busy, the Weasley twins Dopplebeatered the other bludger, sending it flying hard after the Quaffle into Miles.

'Leave it! I'll just out fly it. Looks like Miles has injured a rib!'

Harry wasn't sure if they were going to listen, and was oddly touched as they paused, however as Gryffindor scored another quick goal they nodded, then flew back into defence. One of them must have told Flint, as soon Harry heard Lee viciously yelling that his move should have been a foul. Harry had to tune out of Lee's commentary soon however, as the bludgers was getting better! He began a kind of roller-coaster trip around the pitch, the bludgers tailing him the whole time. In one crazy move he dropped through the middle of the game going do close to Katie Bell that he got a welt from brushing her robe on the way past. She got the worse deal, however s the bludger had been right on his tail and sent her spinning off course. Flint snatched the Quaffle from free fall and promptly scored.

Harry was struggling to keep an eye out for the snitch as well as keep an eye on the distance away from the rogue bludger at all times. It wasn't until he flew straight at the teachers and Lee that anyone outside the team even knew he had a rouge bludger. He did it on purpose, mostly out of curiosity to see if any of them would relact.

'Potter is taking another sudden dive - He's flying towards the tower, but I can't see the snitch - Maybe he's… Potter watch where you're going!'

Harry smirked a little as both Lockhart and Lucius Malfoy had to throw themselves to the floor to avoid the bludger that smashed straight through the teachers tower and out the other side. He didn't have much time to think about it, as he suddenly saw Towler take a dive. Harry was much higher up, and his broom was quite a lot faster, so he caught up easily. Towler wasn't faking, and Harry spotted the snitch before he had made up half of the distance. He had to make a fast barrel role around the broom as the bludgers made an appearance _through_ the Ravenclaw stand immediately to his left.

Harry was close enough to hear Towler groan as the snitch dropped down into the underground channels below the towers. The snitch was moving much faster than usual, with much tighter turns. Harry was thrown for a loop when it suddenly wasn't in front of the two seekers, but quickly pulled up through the next hatch and looped back around. He barely caught a glimpse of a stunned Colin, who had been standing next to the hole not knowing they were underneath. After a few more death-defying turns switching between dodging the bludgers and predicting the snitch it became clear to Harry that the snitch, which usually based it's movements of the two seekers, was being effected by the rogue bludger as a third player. He couldn't help but groan.

Harry wasn't aware, but with both players staying on their brooms, as well as the bludger, the flying was making for an amazing siight. Towler was lagging, but Harry was refusing to give in. The bludgers nicked his left elbow once, sending him spinning off course, and almost hitting several Hufflepuffs because they had been flying too close to the stands. He had had to lie flat on his broom and fly under the seats, hoping he would be small enough to fit out between the legs at the back. Towler had obviously seen Harry go careening towards the squealing boys and had written Harry off, as he got distracted enough by Harry's re-apearance to startle and miss a sharp turn by the snitch, running full speed into a Slytherin player. By that stage Harry was flying too fast to see who it was. In the process Harry lost sight of the snitch. Deciding he would have to deal with the bludgers in order to get the snitch to slow down he resorted to a move which Hermione had made his future self swear an oath not to try again. He pulled his broom hard upwards, going directly away from the earth. He flew high enough that his broom began to shudder, then turned enough so that the bludgers went shooting past. He heard it turn… then dropped.

Lee Jordan had completely given in on commentary of the game in order to describe Harry's plays quite a long time previously to when Harry shot upwards.

'What is Potter up to now? - I can't even see him anymore! The bludgers will keep following you up there… I say what's the score? Slytherin 110! Surely it's cheating to keep playing while the rest of us are watching Harry Potter pull amazing stunt- POTTER IS CRAZY!'

McGonagall was about to yell at Lee Jordan when Harry went shooting past as a blur straight towards the ground.

The pitch had been about the size of a pillow when Harry turned, and the ground was coming up fast. Despite the possibilities that someone might notice, he let his aura fly out to full strength, so he could be even more sure exactly how far away the ground was. He could hear the bludgers coming behind him, close enough he could hear the little whistle. Right at the absolute last minute, he yanked the front of the broom up HARD, pulling his legs across the back forcing the tail end of the broom down. He felt his knees skim the muddy ground, and felt the broom shudder before… **BOOM!**  
Harry glanced over his shoulder and grinned. The bludger was in three big pieces with shards all around. Not wanting to waste any time he flew back across the pitch and searched for the snitch. He spotted it easily, which surprised him for a moment until he realised it was slowing down and stuttering because of the loss of one of it's '_players'_ being… destroyed. Before the stadium had enough time to react to what had happened Harry had grabbed the snitch out of the air. He landed lightly and let out a somewhat strangled laugh as the Nimbus 2001 gave a final shudder, then the charms snapped and it flashed white before the magic seeped out and it became nothing more than a very expensive floor cleaner.

Suddenly the Slytherin team was on him.

'What the hell was that!'

'The bludger-'

'You could have broken your neck!'

'That dive!'

'And the way you dropped-'

'When I said die trying… I didn't mean DIE trying!'

'-thought you were actually falling!'

'-have you seriously _broken_ the broom!'

Everyone stopped yelling and turned to face Draco, who spluttered. I don't _care_, I just didn't even know it was possible.'

'Lucky I wasn't riding only the 2000.' Harry joked. 'Thanks Draco.'

This time the whole team spluttered, as well as some of the Gryffindors who were hovering around the edges of the group.

They were soon joined by the teachers, including an irate Professor Snape.

'Potter, if you had such a strong death wish I would have been more than happy to supply you with the appropriate poisons that wouldn't have involved ruining school property with your demise. Detention.'

'Are you alright Mr. Potter?' Flitwick piped up.

Harry laughed. Lockhart had opened his mouth twice to speak, but first Snape, and now Flitwick had just talked straight over him. Harry timed his response to do exactly the same thing, noting with glee the tic in Lockhart's eye.

'Perfectly fine sir.'

'And the shrapnel embedded in your back?' Flitwick said, his voice even higher than usual. Harry turned to look over his shoulder and as much of his back as he could see with a bit of shock.

'Oh.'

Some of the smaller bludgers pieces were smoking slightly where they were embedded in his skin and his uniform had large torn chunks.

'Not to worry, I've dealt with this sort of thing before.' Lockhart finally got a word in. He raised his wand, but before he could say anything Harry silently and wandlessly summoned the quaffle out of Alicia's hands so it hit Lockhart in the back of the head hard enough to knock him out.

Alicia looked from her hands, to the passed out teacher, back to her hands then let out a confused half word. 'Wh-huh?'

'Perhaps _Madam_ _Pomfrey_ can see to both of us?' Harry said innocently.

Snape and Flitwick both narrowed their eyes, but it seemed that their amusement at Lockhart's fate over-rid their better judgment.

'Maybe it would be best if we didn't help Professor Lockedhearty.' Fred Weasley teased, popping up on one side of Harry.

'You know, in case any of the other balls have a mind of their own too.' George popped up on his other side.

'Ten points from Gryffindor.' Snape drawled happy to have found _someone_ to remove points off.

'Would you mind a numbing charm sir?' Harry asked Flitwick quietly hidden under the loud protest off all the surrounding Gryffindors.

It took a little while to finally make it to the hospital wing, but while Madam Pomfrey pottered around complaining under her breath about Quidditch injuries, Harry could only be glad that he just had to lie there with a salve on, instead of re-growing his arm. The salve was actually quite nice, as it warmed up making his whole body relax, and had pulses of pressure, which were acting almost like having a long massage. It was slightly awkward when the team came tramping in and he could only turn to see half of them, and even more annoying that the Malfoy's and their friend were denied access. Especially since Draco informed Harry that the 'friend' had been a Quidditch rep, who was _very_ interested in Harry. Harry hadn't considered the possibility of playing Quidditch professionally. The whole emphasis was on finding the horcruxes, and offing Tom, and now that it was a possible option, he wasn't sure what to think. Once the team (and Daphne, Theo and Blaise) had come and gone, Harry slowly floated into a comfortable dream where he didn't have to deal with Dark Lords, or family that lied, or meddling Headmasters; a world where his biggest concern was playing Quidditch.

Thoughts of Voldemort were brought suddenly, and quite rudely back to the front of his mind a few hours after dark. Harry woke confused with a start, trying to figure out where he was and what woke him up. It only took him a moment, when he was suddenly filled with a great amount of shame.

'Dobby.'

'Dobby told yous! He _warned_ Harry Potter to stay away from Hogwarts!'

Harry felt a sense of déjà vu, quickly followed by a strong amount of panic. He didn't have time for Dobby's excuses. 'I don't care about the bludgers. Go and get a boy called Colin Creevey!'

'Dobby is sorry for his bludger but he-'

'Now!' Harry hissed, trying not to wake madam Pomfrey. 'The damn Basilisk is going to attack him.'

'Harry Potter knows about the-'

'Please Dobby. He is going to be hurt!'

Dobby paled, then nodded. 'Dobby will be right back!'

Harry held his breath, but the time stretched on and he eventually let it out in a gush. He was so stupid! He had been planning to avoid the bludgers, so not end up in the hospital wing for Colin to sneak out to. Harry tried to console himself with the idea that _this_ Colin might not even want to see Harry. Colin had stuck to his one picture rule, however he often trailed after Harry with a look of awe plastered across his face… The time stretched on and still Dobby didn't return. He had spent all that time thinking of Quidditch, when the students were in Danger! He felt rotten.

Anger and shame slowly turned to fear as the minutes slowly passed and Dobby still didn't return. Harry shuffled around in his bed so he was facing the door. His heart sunk when it suddenly opened and Dumbledore came through levitating a body… and McGonagall followed _carrying Dobby_. Harry felt tears well up and fall down his cheeks.

_Let them be petrified… Don't let them be dead… Merlin please don't let them be dead for me __**again!**_

Madam Pomfrey came out and let of a small yell of shock, before the three spoke in sharp whispers. Harry was straining his ears, but didn't dare casting a spell to hear them. Pomfrey had monitors on all her patients. A curtain went up, and it wasn't until the three teachers stepped out of it to greet a flustered Professor Sprout that Harry heard anything at all.

'Oh heavens! Another attack Albus?' said Sprout. 'Is he-'

'Only petrified.' whispered Madam Pomfrey.

'Yes,' said McGonagall. 'But I shudder to think . . . If Albus hadn't been on the way downstairs for hot chocolate — who knows what might have —'

The four of them stared down at Colin. Then Dumbledore leaned forward and wrenched the camera out of Colin's rigid grip.

'You don't think he managed to get a picture of his attacker?' said Professor McGonagall eagerly.

Dumbledore didn't answer. He opened the back of the camera.

'Good gracious!' said Madam Pomfrey.

A jet of steam had hissed out of the camera. Harry, three beds away, caught the acrid smell of burnt plastic.

'Melted,' said Madam Pomfrey wonderingly. 'All melted . . .'

'What does this mean, Albus?' Professor McGonagall asked urgently.

'It means,' said Dumbledore, 'that the Chamber of Secrets is indeed open again.'

'But Potter was in here… wasn't he?'

Harry almost jumped out of his bed in anger at McGonagall.

'Yes. I have charms that let me know when a student leaves their bed.' Madam Pomfrey sounded insulted. Harry wasn't sure if it was for him, or just because they thought he might have got away from her charms (which incidentally, he had learned to do in his first fourth year, but he was the only one he knew who could).

'We were never sure it was him.' Sprout reasoned. Harry wondered exactly who had been talking about him, and how often.

'So then who is it?' McGonagall asked. She was looking at Dumbledore, but he didn't answer, only stared down at Dobby.

'The question is not who…' Dumbledore said, 'It is how.'

None of the three ladies seemed not to understand that but Harry did, and he was growing angrier and angrier with Dumbledore by the minute. It was clear Dumbledore knew it was Tom Riddle, but wasn't doing anything to move suspicion away from Harry. That last statement would probably make the two women assume Dumbledore didn't know how _Harry_ was doing it, not Tom Riddle!

'I don't know how to heal an elf Headmaster. You will have to call in a specialist from St. Mungos.' Sighed Madam Pomfrey.

'No. This must stay within the school.'

'Dumbledore an Elf is different to a human or a non-magical cat! It could be in danger.'

Harry had felt a great tension leave him when he heard Dobby wasn't dead, but he bristled as they debated what to do with Dobby. He was pleased, but not surprised, that Madam Pomfrey was just as upset at a creature in possible pain as with that of a human. In the end they called a Hogwarts elf to ask a few questions. That's when the chaos broke out as they discovered it wasn't a Hogwarts elf. Harry used the higher pitched elf voices as an excuse to _wake_ _up_. He got out of the bed silently and made his way over to the argument. Madam Pomfrey knew the second he was up.

'Mr. Potter! Get back into your bed!'

Everyone turned to look at Harry, but he had got close enough for it not be odd for him to have spotted Dobby.

'What is Malfoy's elf doing- Oh Gods!' Harry pretended to reel in shock at them being petrified, his occlumency barriers high and thick. 'They aren't…'

'No Mr. Potter, they are petrified like Miss Clearwater.' Sprout said kindly. Dislike of Harry or no, she was a Hufflepuff through and through, and only saw a child in distress.

'I apologies for jumping to conclusions Harry my boy, but-'

'Mr. Potter.' Harry interrupted.

'Excuse me?' Dumbledore let his eyes twinkle over his half moon glasses, and Harry felt an occlumency probe. Harry let his '_natural'_ defence take care of it, and it hastily retreated.

'My name is Mr. Potter, unless you wish to suggest a more inappropriate intimacy, I suggest you stick to it.'

'When did you learn Occlumency Harry?' Dumbledore ignored him.

'_Sir_, I will only ask one more time before I become alarmed. My Name is _Mr. Potter_ unless I give someone permission to use my first name… and what on earth is occ-loonacy?'

Harry registered Dumbledore's surprise, and a tiny bit of anger. But eventually Dumbledore seemed to accept that Harry had a naturally protected mind. Perhaps he thought it was to do with the horcrux?

'I'm sorry you feel that way Mr. Potter.'

'Yes. Me too.'

There was an awkward silence until Madam Pomfrey ushered Harry back to bed. The professors soon left and the ward was left in silence. Harry drifted into a more disturbed sleep, all dreams of Quidditch long forgotten.


	10. Chapter 10

**TEN**

Harry returned to the dorm the next morning to find a distressed Apep. Apep had overheard enough to know that Harry was in the hospital wing, but not his state. He had had almost as rough a night as Harry, and clung a bit tighter to Harry's middle refusing to leave him alone.

The school seemed to back down a little against Harry. A few people were even more vocal against him, but most of them knew Harry got on okay with Colin, and even more knew of Madam Pomfrey's bed wards. Harry on the other hand, was getting more and more desperate. Lucius Malfoy had been brought to the school and questioned about why his elf was there. In the end he claimed that he assumed it must have been visiting Draco. It was a flimsy excuse at best, and probably bought Dumbledore a little while longer within the school compared to the original timeline, but it only served to remind Harry that he was the one who had sent Dobby into danger.

Harry was determined to get the diary soon, and decided to take rather drastic action after he heard Neville asking an older student what the Gryffindor password was.

As the rest of the school sat down for dinner, Harry ducked under his cloak and made his way to the Gryffindor common room. The fat lady was suspicious of an invisible student, but Harry had the password, so she had no choice but to let him in (a serious flaw if ever there was one). He was overwhelmed for a moment after passing through the portal. The Gryffindor room was so much warmer than the Slytherin one. There were twice as many fires and couches, and the red and gold made the room feel homier. Harry had decided after he was sorted that there was nothing he could do, and to just move on, however standing in his old common room made his chest ache, and he found himself longing for his friends. Seeing a group of older students sitting in the golden trio's spot quickly brought him back to reality, and with slightly watery eyes (from allergies I'm sure), Harry made his way to the girls staircase.

Thanking Bill Weasley's ward knowledge for the thousandth time, Harry temporarily deactivated the sex-determining ward and quickly made his way up the stairs. Bill had once admitted to Harry that that ward was the reason he originally found interest in ward-breaking, and that he remembered the thrill of breaking in to the girls dorms had been far better than the quick snog he'd had with Rosie Fernbelt.

Making his way into the first year dorm Harry immediately sent out a magical probe that searched the room for dark magic. There were a few items, mostly from a bed of a small blond girl Harry had never learnt the name of. Even these were minimal, and mostly family magic's - so not even restricted. Bloodline jewelry and a diary that only the owner could open. However the whole room was sadly lacking in any sign of THE Diary. Harry swore long and hard under his breath.

.:Now what?:. He asked Apep.

.:Maybe you should search the other dorms while we are here. Maybe you will get lucky?:.

Harry glanced at his watch.

.:I can hope:.

Harry guessed that the Gryffindors would probably start coming back up in an hour, but he wanted to be gone long before then. Harry searched the second year dorm and the third years, before moving on to the boys. He highly doubted the diary would be with anyone older.

The first-year boys dorm showed up nothing, but Harry was totally de-railed when he opened the door to the second year dorm.

Peter Pettigrew was snoozing in the middle of Ron's bed.

Harry froze and all thoughts of the diary flew from his head. Pettigrew was _right there_. There was a possibility that the man hadn't actually betrayed his parents, as the Potters obviously had had some sort of plan as they were alive. Harry didn't know the whole story, but the choice of freedom had been taken from Peter the moment he left Sirius to rot in Azkaban.

The heavy stunner hit Scabblers and sent him flying across the room to hit the opposite wall with a thwack! Harry retrieved him off the floor, only _just_ managing to fight the impulse to simply squash the rat where he was. Only thoughts of Sirius' freedom stopped him.

Thoughts of two of the marauders gave Harry a final idea. A quick trip up to the twins room (leaving quite a few advanced pranks behind, along with a note that simply said '_Sorry, but the as the son of Prongs I had to keep this one.'_) and Harry had a much more reliable way of getting around the castle. More to the point, he had a way of tracking the movements of whoever went near Myrtle's bathroom…

Harry headed down to dinner and just made it in time for desserts. He didn't waste any time, and told the other Slytherins he had a headache and was going to bed. He slipped straight back out and headed down into the Chamber of Secrets.

Luna and Harry had discussed the benefits and losses related to messing with the original timeline. It had started almost the moment they realised it might be possible to send one of them back, and had continued right up until the day before Harry had discovered his parents. Both Luna and Harry had days when they thought of doubts, but pretty much agreed that maintaining the timeline until after he had all the horcruxes was the best plan. Harry now had the diadem, and had more solid plans to go and get the ring during the next holidays. The locket needed Sirius, and possibly the cup too. Harry wasn't nearly close enough to try messing with anything big. It left him with way too much of a blind spot. Too many people had been messed up by the second Voldemort war. He couldn't let it happen again.

At the same time, Harry had no intention of letting Pettigrew get away. Fortunately, he had a perfectly good source available to put Peter into a suspended state…

.:Hello Belleza, are you here?:.

.:Young Harry, have you come to kill me again?:.

Harry startled at the sentence, but then realised Belleza meant visit again, not kill again, and hadn't discovered Harry's secret.

.:No. I do not wish to do that, but I must protect the students. I Promise I will try everything else first:.

.:Protecting the school is my purpose I suppose. Why are you here?:.

.:I came to ask a favor:.

.:And what shall you give me in return?:. Belleza hissed with the tone of being very smug.

.:I brought six cows:.

.: …what is this favor?:.

.: I need you to petrify someone for me:.

Harry could feel Belleza's shock as the snake magic rippled around him. He realised in this case it was actually the Basilisk's natural magic, and different to that in the Slytherin common room.

.:_You_ want me to petrify someone?:.

.:Not kill him. I have brought a mirror:.

.:I can petrify without a mirror. I have been doing so for master Tom:.

Harry stopped for a moment running the words over in his head, making sure he understood that right.

.:He has asked you to petrify them?:.

.:Noo… but he hasn't said anything about it. But then, I only petrified people the last time:.

.:What about Myrtle!:.

.:That was a mistake. I couldn't smell her over the fumes of the freshly cleaned bathroom. I didn't know she was there until it was too late:.

.:But- Tom was still attacking the students?!:.

.:Oh yes, he wanted them gone from Hogwarts. He wanted them scared enough to leave, but didn't want to waste any magical blood:.

Harry's brain began spinning so much he had to sit down.

.:Voldemort didn't want to kill students?:.

.:Voldemort might have. Tom didn't, I don't think... He always used to set it up to explain the petrifactions, flooding the floor or shifting them to face a window. I wouldn't really know however, as he didn't come back, and it isn't all of Tom now:.

.:I need to think on this,:. Harry didn't think he would be doing much else, .:Can you petrify someone when I say so?:.

.:I have switched my eyes over now:.

.:Okay, if I am accidentally petrified please _carefully! _carry my body up into the school so I can be found:.

Harry turned away from Belleza and opened his eyes. He was careful to keep his back to Belleza as he brought Pettigrew out, and forced him into his human form. Peter came to in the process, and immediately started to panic, turning and running straight away.

With a fair bit of self-disgust, Harry cast the only thing he could think of. He wasn't going to let Pettigrew get away at any cost, he owed Sirius.

'Imperio!'

Peter's mind's defence crumbled instantly. Too many years living as a lazy rat. _Turn around and look behind me._ Harry commanded, feeling dirty when Peter did so immediately. Harry was only too happy when Peter met Belleza's eyes and froze solid and the link disappeared. Without thinking properly, Harry turned around to thank Belleza… and met her great big yellow eyes.


	11. Chapter 11

**ELEVEN**

Harry only stopped screaming when he realised that he was still screaming… and that in order to do so he obviously wasn't dead.

.:I'm not dead:.

Belleza flicked her tongue out at him tasting. .:No. You taste alive, although there is much death magic around you:.

Harry filed that bit away for later. .:I am looking at you!:. he paused .:In the eyes!:.

.:You do not listen. I told you snakes do not attack other snakes:.

.:I am not a snake:.

.:You are snake enough to speak our tongue. Snake magic can't harm you… even venom will have a lesser effect:.

.:Your venom…:.

.:Do not get ahead of yourself, it would still kill you:.

.:Yes, but slow enough that an antidote could be given:.

.:There is no antidote to my bite:.

.:Phoenix tears:.

Belleza didn't reply, but Harry got the distinct impression of her sniffing in disdain. Harry's mind was racing with the possibility of getting an immunity bite from a Basilisk. It explained why the acromantula bite hadn't killed him in the tri-wizard tournament too, as it was a lesser poison. It also explained why Voldemort hadn't minded taking potions from a possible traitor, Harry had always wondered why he took the risk. Poison wouldn't have worked. He would have to get his hands on some phoenix tears.

'Damn it! I never had to avoid the eyes the last time either.' Harry grumbled.

Harry stayed to talk to Belleza for a while longer, leaving late enough that his dorm-mates would be asleep. He deposited Pettigrew in the abandoned hallway off the dungeon entrance to the Chamber in a broom cupboard. He placed the cupboard under fidelius. Sneaking back in under his cloak went smoothly, although he did get a surprise when he found Dobby frozen next to Draco's bed. With an internal evil laugh Harry picked some of Draco's clothes off the floor, hanging a scarf over one of Dobby's arms, and Draco's hat off an ear, finally he hung a shirt across Dobby's head. Knowing Draco, he would find the whole thing funny and continue the same… not realizing he would be giving Dobby clothes. Harry wasn't sure if it would work, but he had no intention of giving Lucius or Dumbledore the diary, and he did want to free Dobby. If this didn't work out he would try to buy him… which would probably happen through Narcissa. It would be a good path to getting to talk to the witch, who Harry really needed to get on Sirius' side. His last thoughts before going to sleep were of Sirius, and the fact that he now had undeniable proof that Sirius was innocent.

The next morning brought annoying news. Harry woke early, energized and feeling brighter about the day… only to reach the common room to find professor Snape talking with a seventh year whilst pinning up a notice.

'A duel club sir?'

'Yes Potter.'

'Please tell me someone more capable that Lockhart is running it?' Harry was of course already aware, but wanted to make sure.

'I will be there also.'

Harry groaned, 'Also? It's Lockhart isn't it? There is very little he could teach a bug! I have no desire to learn to cast obliviate!' Harry growled.

'And _what_, Potter, makes you think he would be proficient in such a curse?'

Harry laughed. He hadn't meant to spill Lockhart's secrets but then again, the idea had merits… 'Honestly sir?'

Snape inclined his head a fraction.

'He clearly hasn't got any skills outside of the cosmetic, but someone had to have done something _similar_ to his tales in the very least. Now while one or two of them might stay silent, I doubt all of them would have. So it stands to reason he is either taking their memories or their lives, and I seriously doubt Lockhart could have enough skills to cover _that_ up.'

'So you won't be going then? To the duel club I mean.' The seventh year looked thoroughly disappointed.

'I might go. I imagine Lockhart will make a fool of himself… especially if the professor here is at the other end of the platform.'

'But will you duel?'

Harry shrugged. 'Yeah, I guess. It depends on the professors.' He was rather unsure why it would matter. Fortunately Snape wasn't so oblivious.

'I seriously doubt Potter will be a dueling prodigy just because he vanquished our last Dark Lord.'

Harry was glad to understand the Slytherin, who was now looking suitably embarrassed, but had been reeling a little at having an (almost) polite conversation with Snape. The only such other he could remember was on the man's deathbed. Harry suddenly had a wicked thought as he registered Snape's words.

'Vanquish… that's an odd word choice sir.'

Harry felt like dancing. He had made Snape's perfected Slytherin-mask-to-rule-all-Slytherin-masks _slip_! It was only for a fraction of a second, but it happened. Harry briefly wondered whether it was possible to take a camera inside a pensive.

'How so?'

Harry grinned. It had become a hobby for him to break down as many Slytherin masks as possible.

'Well sir, surely vanquish means to remove all traces of the man?'

'Ah, so you do not believe that you have ever vanquished the Dark Lord?' To someone who wasn't looking, the sentence seemed harmless enough. Harry considered very, very carefully before answering.

'Not yet.'

'The Potter arrogance shows through. Promising things you can not achieve?' The seventh year was looking between Snape and Harry with confusion, aware on some level that there was an underlying message, but not knowing what it was.

'Hmm… maybe more in the way of a prophecy than a promise.' Oh how Harry loved to mess with Snape. He could see the man's muscles itching to twitch. 'I am quite sure that he will keep coming after me, however I have no intention of dying for him. As he found out to his detriment, no doubt.'

HA! Twice in one conversation! He was even pretty sure that that slip had been amusement… although Snape would probably kill himself before admitting a Potter made him laugh… or possibly kill the Potter. Best change the subject.

'Either way sir, I highly doubt that Lockhart would even be considered on the same scale.'

'Professor Lockhart.'

Harry looked carefully at Snape. 'Well sir, that is a matter of opinion. Just because he is in a school, does not render him able to teach.'

'You should be more wary with whom you share your opinions Potter.'

'Perhaps. Or perhaps I only share my opinions with people I trust. I think I will head to breakfast sir, I am glad at least one of the dueling tutors will be _proficient_.'

Harry walked out before the surreal situation could be broken by one of them resulting to stronger insults… that last _proficient_ jab had been cutting it close.

It was odd, being in Slytherin. Most of the time Harry had become used to it, but every now and then (usually when having a polite conversation with Draco, or calling Crabbe and Goyle, Vince and Greg) it felt entirely foreign. Even in all the many situations he and Luna had thought up, he had never considered Snape would ever come to tolerate him, despite the man's oaths to his mothers grave.

…Most of the time however, Snape was a git, and Draco was a spoilt brat, so Harry didn't think on it too long.

By the time the dueling club came around four days later, any memories of polite conversation with Snape were distant hazy memories. He and Neville had accidentally blown up their cauldron on the Monday, and had spent every free period and evening in detention scrubbing the acidic substance off the floor. Harry didn't mind spending time with Neville, as he was the only person in the school who Harry truly trusted, and who trusted him somewhat. Their conversations were usually few and far between, and Neville didn't have nearly enough confidence to stick up for Harry, but he never once teased or insulted him, and he often sent little smiles when no one else was on Harry's side. Neville seemed overly apologetic about the explosion, which made Harry a little suspicious. On Thursday evening Harry had asked Neville if he was going to go to the club after dinner. He had discovered the only way to stop Neville from appologising was to keep him talking of other things.

'Well I hear Lockhart is running it.'

'I know.' Harry sounded a lot more despondent than Neville, which made the shy boy laugh.

'I was actually seeing that as a good thing. He won't be able to teach us any highly complicated spells for me to mess up.'

'I was beginning to worry for your sanity for a second there, Nev.'

'I'm just as sane as you are Harry.'

'Oh _dear_.' Harry put on a grave face, and they burst out laughing. 'Someone else told me that once.'

'What was he like?'

'_She_ was_… _Quite a lot like Luna Lovegood.'

'You like Luna though.'

'Yes.'

'You are quite odd, and nothing like I expected Harry Potter to be.'

'I'm no different to you Nev. In fact, we are eerily similar, only you had your gran.'

'Mum gives me lollie wrappers sometimes.' Neville had spoken so softly Harry only just caught it.

'She is probably loving you with all she's got, and the only thing she can.'

'They say their brains aren't connected, that she doesn't know who I am.'

'A mother always knows her child.' Harry squeezed Neville's shoulder. 'Come on. I think we are actually done.'

They didn't talk on their way up to dinner, and possibly wouldn't again. Harry was surprised Neville had brought it up at all, especially as he was good friends with Hermione and Dean. Harry wasn't really sure how they had got on to the topic, but he was honored to be talking about it. In the original time-line Harry had secretly felt sorry for Neville, thinking it might have been better if Frank and Alice hadn't made it. Now, with the knowledge that his parents abandoned him, he was just the tiniest bit jealous.

.:I am becoming far too sentimental Apep:.

.:I can squeeze you tighter every time you come close to being so, if you want?:.

Considering how tight Apep had been wound since Harry ended in the hospital wing without Apep, Harry declined. Apep was growing quite rapidly recently too, and was getting stronger with his wider girth. Harry wasn't keeping up with the young Boa, and would soon have to investigate shrinking spells that could be left on without causing harm.

After dinner most of the school gathered around the entrance to the great hall while Dumbledore rearranged it to have a dueling platform. Harry was a little twitchy, and had told Apep that if any snakes turned up, it was his role to calm them without being seen. All things considered, Snape _probably_ wouldn't tell an opponent of Harry to attack him with a snake… but Harry was starting to have faith with the universe trying to repeat wherever possible.

The noise of the student's died down as Lockhart waltzed on to the stage in dueling robes in a deep plum colour. Snape followed him sneering in his usual black work-robes. He obviously didn't think he would be at a big enough disadvantage to wear any different.

'Gather round, Gather round! Can everyone hear _me_? Can you all see _me_? Excellent.' Lockhart preened a little and the older Hufflepuff on Harry's right almost choked trying to cover up his snort.

'Now, Professor Dumbledore has allowed me to have my little dueling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions — for full details, see my published works.' The boy next to Harry now had both hands covering his mouth to stop the laughter, and his three friends weren't in a much better state. If Harry hadn't been so focused on thinking up ways Snape could injure Lockhart enough to get a new DADA teacher, and actually been paying attention, he might have been going rather red from not-laughing too.

'Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape,' said Lockhart, flashing a wide smile. 'He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry — you'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him, never fear!'

That had the Slytherin's gaping… or the Slytherin version of doing so. Several eyebrows were raised, and a wave of humor passed through the crowd.

One of the biggest advantages Harry could find about being in Slytherin this year was that only three of the girls thought anything good of Lockhart, and Lillian and Daphne both admired him only for doing so well with absolutely no skills and Pansy admitted she was a little jealous of his hair routine. None of them even came close to swooning, thank god.

The two professors walked to the end of the platform and Lockhart did an overly fancy bow, flourishing his hands, while Snape's sneer increased, and he gave a short nod.

'As you can see, we have acknowledged each other, and on the count of three we will begin. Neither of us will be aiming to kill of course.'

'One - Two - Three -'

'Expelliarmus!' Snape fired off his spell before Lockhart had even raised his arm fully, and with a great BANG! Lockhart lost his wand and went flying across the room.

'I'm lucky I learnt that spell at all.' Harry murmured to himself as he watched Lockhart bluster his way through a dodgy explanation, collecting his wand from an excited female Hufflepuff. Harry was becoming more and more interested in the possibility of taking a camera into a pensive, and almost completely missed Lockhart calling him up as he had stopped listening. With a slight sigh, he made his way onto the platform.

'Perhaps a fellow student from Gry-'

'I could duel you professor.' Harry interrupted Lockhart's speech with a drawl, having seen Ron's smirk as his hand flew in the air to volunteer.

'I'm sure we are of a different level of dueling Mr. Potter.'

Harry let his lips curl into a smirk. 'Oh I'm _quite_ _sure_ that we are… Sir.' Several of the Slytherin's snickered. Snape frowned more than usual toward Harry.

'Perhaps one of the older years? Mr. Bernett, Professor McGonagall is always insisting you show skills when outside my classroom despite the lack of hint of any within.' Snape drawled.

Harry gave Snape a calculating look. Mitch Bernett was top of Defence, and with a professional hit-wizard father and a high level Auror for a mum had probably had training outside school. Mitch's smirk matched Snape's as he made his way onto the stage. Harry met Snape's eye then just fractionally raised one brow.

'Scared Potter?' Mitch smirked as they met in the middle.

Even though he knew he shouldn't do it, and that it would come back and bite him later when the whole school called him heir, Harry smirked.

'Oh… _Petrified_.'

The Gryffindor paled for a moment before pretending it hadn't affected him. They walked to the end of the platform and bowed.

'Okay now boys,' Lockhart said cheerfully 'There will be no unforgivables, obviously, but also no aiming to do lasting damage of any form. Aim to disarm. On my count, Three - Two - One - Start!'

Harry immediately took a large step to the left, allowing Mitch's spell to aimlessly spark against the floor. Mitch was casting hard and fast, but it only took a few spells for Harry to realise that he had terrible aim. Instead of casting shields Harry just spun and stepped out of the way, slowly making his way closer to the middle. Mitch was still casting silently, but was clearly getting frustrated with Harry's avoidance.

'Damn it Potter! Cast!'

In the time it took Mitch to complain, he hadn't been casting, and Harry quickly cast a _wingardiam_ _leviosa_ on the carpet that marked the dueling space. Mitch was thrown off balance by suddenly having unsure footing, and Harry took advantage of that too, quickly following the levitation charm with a light but accurate hex to Mitch's elbow. Just enough to make his wand arm involuntarily twitch. It sent Mitch's _Tarantegllia_ hex way off course, and gave Harry an easy opening for an _expelliarmus_. Mitch's wand went flying across the room towards Harry, where he snatched it out of the air. The force of the _expelliarmus_, combined with the wobbling floor easily sent Mitch to the ground.

The time between Harry returning fire, and Mitch hitting the floor was about six seconds, and the whole room was silent in shock… except for Mitch, who groaned slightly as he pulled himself back up.

Harry thought it said a lot about the quality of Hogwarts professors that Harry could beat the school's best defence student hands down using only the spells he'd learnt in the first term of his first year.

Snape was the first to regain his thinking.

'Ten points to Slytherin. Perhaps another round?'

Harry smiled sweetly and handed Mitch his wand back and offered him a hand up. 'I'm game.'

'Damn it, you won't catch me out again!' Mitch hissed, though he actually sounded a little impressed.

'Probably not.' Harry agreed good-naturedly. They both made their way to the end of the platform as Lockhart gave some absolutely useless advice to the crowd. Harry frowned a little when he saw Galba Primus, a seventh year Slytherin pull Mitch aside and say something. Primus wasn't a big fan of Harry's, and he was second cousin to Mitch, who might actually take him seriously. Harry let out a long sigh, guessing what was coming. He gave Apep a nudge to be ready, and Apep tightened a bit.

'Okay boys, on my count. Three - Two - One - Duel!'

'Expelliarmus!'

'Serpensortia!'

Harry's spell sent Mitch's wand flying across the room towards him, but Harry ignored it, focusing on the angry cobra that landed in front of him.

.:Danger! Anger! Where am I? I have been taken from my nest! Attack!:.

Great, Harry thought, just my luck it's a nesting mother. Everyone close to the platform had taken a large step back, but Harry ignored them, and stepped slowly forward. Apep was hissing reassurances, the spell that blocked Apep from being heard by anyone other than Harry only working on humans. Harry could see the Cobra calming a bit, her hood no linger flared quite so wide.

'Come on Mitch, I'm from Slytherin, you should have conjured a lion.' Harry tried to make light of the situation as he leaned down for the cobra to climb onto his arm as Apep was telling it to. Several people were quite pale, and Harry was getting looks for being crazy. The cobra was almost at his arm when Lockhart had to interfere.

'Not to worry Mr. Potter, I'll save you.' As if that statement wasn't embarrassing enough Lockhart quickly followed it with a slightly dark hex that was used for killing small vermin. It would undoubtably kill the small cobra, and Harry only knew one way to block it without using advanced shields a second year would never know. He responded on instinct.

.:Domeus!:.

Harry had hissed under his breath, and even the closest students wouldn't have heard him. The dome that formed around the snake flared gold for a moment, before fading from view. Harry sent Lockhart a dirty glare, before scooping up the cobra. Harry turned towards Snape, about to ask if he would banish the snake (as Harry had to pretend he couldn't simply pull off a sixth year spell on whim). All thoughts were sucked out of his head however, when he saw Snape's face. It was deathly white and his usual mask wasn't in sight.

Harry had never considered it, and refused to regret saving the snake, but while the students didn't hear him, Snape had seen the way the spell flashed golden. Most wouldn't be aware of that quirk in Parseltongue magicks, but guessing by his expression, Snape must have seen Voldemort work Parselmagic before.

'Could you please banish her sir?'

'Her? Potter?'

'Yes sir.'

'I'll do it, I must have done such things countless times before.' Lockhart raised his wand, but Snape was quicker, and the Cobra disappeared from around Harry's wrist before Harry had to resort to drastic measures again.

Lockhart then took over the club again, and the whole thing dissolved into chaos as he paired them off and had everyone practice in a confined space at once. Much to Harry's amusement nearly everyone was partnered off as they had been in the original timeline, and before anyone knew it, Hermione and Millicent were wrestling. Due to the reversal of the order, there was a lot more Gryffindor/Slytherin tension in the air, and Harry noticed Fred and George taking bets. Harry met Fred's eye and indicated two Sickles on Hermione. Millie would kill him, but sure enough, Hermione emerged victorious. Hermione always had been a bit slippery. It was even more amusing for Harry, as he now knew Millicent much better, and would take great amusement from riling the poor girl up for the next few weeks leading up to Christmas.

The twins took the sickle loss rather well, but then, they had been doing a raging business trading talismans under the teachers noses since the chamber opened. This time Harry had managed to talk Neville out of the smelly green onion and the rotting newt tail, though he didn't manage to stop him getting an amulet. Knowing it could probably actually be used for enchanting in the future and was currently just a harmless charging crystal, Harry didn't try to convince Neville too much. Neville had been worried when Filch's cat was attacked, as it seemed he was aware the caretaker was a squib, and considered himself as such. Harry spent the entire evening on Tuesday berating Neville for ever thinking so.

Harry actually stayed for the end of the meet this time, and partook of another four demonstration duels (managing to hit Lockhart five times _through _the dueling wards for making him compete again and again). Every time he used only first year spells, and only Christina Blanc put up much of a fight, and she took a page from Harry's book, sticking to lower year spells and getting creative.

Fred and George had an interesting duel too, mostly because nothing happened. Neither of them scored a hit and they had to concede after twenty minutes. It only supported Harry's theory that they had a mental connection they understood but couldn't control, as neither seemed capable of lying to the other about their planned actions.

Besides the Weasley twins however, Hogwarts staff were in a sorry state. Harry made a mental note to badger Flitwick into starting a dueling club the following year when Lockhart wouldn't be there to ruin it. As a whole, the Slytherins returned to their dorms disenchanted.


	12. Chapter 12

**TWELVE**

The next morning at breakfast Harry noticed quite a lot of people were taking a lot more notice of him. Despite only using very easy spells, and purposely slowing down his reaction times and allowing hits on the less annoying spells, it had been clear that Harry was an excellent dueler. Flitwick had caught Harry's eye a few times across the hall, and the last time actually held a thumbs up wave. McGonagall was looking skeptical and Sprout torn between impressed and worried. Lockhart was obviously trying hard not to scowl at Harry, and Snape wasn't bothering, his familiar sneer practically didn't leave the back of Harry's head the whole morning, a very calculating look buried underneath. But for all those, and the many, many students starring, Harry felt Dumbledore's the most. Dumbledore tried _six times_ to legilimize Harry over his candy tea and cereal. Every time Harry let him meet a curiously blank mind, but never get through. Dumbledore probably didn't realise (in fact Harry was sure he didn't, or he would have stopped), but every time he entered Harry's mind, Harry could get an overall impression of his current thoughts. He wasn't able to search through, or even see, memories, but he could tell the legilimen's thoughts at the time they were attempting to read Harry.

Dumbledore was oozing suspicion, with a touch of surprise and something else. He had _expected_ Harry to speak Parseltongue, which made Harry even surer that Dumbledore had always known he was a horcrux, or in the absolute least, suspected it.

Harry, in turn, was suspicious and surprised as well. It had been clear to him that Snape recognized Harry's dome spell for what it was: Parselmagic. But it was clear Dumbledore didn't know. So was Snape actually on Voldemort's side after all? He was obviously keeping secrets from Dumbledore. Or was it that he thought he was protecting Harry. After all, his oath was to Lily's son, not Dumbledore.

There was always the possibility Snape knew the Potter's were alive, however Harry very much doubted it. For one thing, Snape truly hated Harry in the first time-line, which he wouldn't of had he known Harry was abandoned. Besides, Harry had seen a memory of a Deatheater battle during Auror training in which he'd recognized Snape's mask. Snape's patronus had used to be a fox, however when dear loved one dies (such as Lily had been to Snape) a patronus can change to that of their loved ones. Harry had written a whole thesis on this for the unspeakables when he had been trying to find his Animagus. Snape at least had to believe Lily to be dead. If Harry were sure of any one person not knowing that James and Lily were alive, it would be Snape.

That didn't change the fact that until that morning, Harry had Snape pegged squarely in Dumbledore's pocket, as well as in Voldemort's. Now he wasn't sure. It took Harry most of breakfast and the first half of the Transfiguration double to come to the conclusion that he wasn't at all sure. It took him a lot longer to register that the third emotion of Dumbledore's had been disappointment. Dumbledore clearly _wanted_ Harry to be a horcrux.

Eventually in the late afternoon, something finally caught Harry's attention enough to bring his thoughts away from possible reasons for being a horcrux and Snape's loyalties. He was brought out of his thoughts in a rather abrupt way.

'Sorry th're Potter.' Harry had run straight into Hagrid without seeing him. Quite a feat considering it was Hagrid.

'That's alrigh-' Harry began to return when he realised that the sticky substance that had rubbed off Hagrid when they collided was blood. Rooster blood. From the dead rooster Hagrid was holding.

Harry paled rapidly and made a hurried excuse before turning the corner, then sprinting at full speed to the Slytherin common room. Theo waved Harry over, but Harry shook his head and made his way into the dorm as quickly as he could without drawing interest by running. The next attack had happened when Hagrid was taking the rooster to show Dumbledore. Harry ignored Greg's surprised greeting, and questioning about coming back from the owlry so soon. He sped over to his trunk and quickly pulled out the marauders map, activating it and scanning the corridors.

Justin Finch-Fletchley was only half a floor away from Nearly-Headless Nick. Harry shoved the map into his pocket and took off at a run. Only one floor above them was empty halls with the name 'Tom Riddle' floating along with no set of footsteps. Harry walked calmly from the dorm stairs to the exit portal, waving merrily to Daphne, but the second he was in the school he was sprinting with all his might. He cut through two secret passageways and was wheezing heavily by the time he reached the fourth floor. He could hear Belleza and pushed his legs a little harder, ignoring his protesting lungs. Flying around the corner at high speed Harry didn't have time to stop before passing through Nearly-Headless Nick. It was a horrible sensation… made all the worse because Nick was a sooty black colour, and felt much thicker than usual. Just down the corridor Harry caught sight of the reflection of Belleza's tail disappearing into an opened pipe in the window, and just got a glimpse of red. Justin was staring around the corner where the pipe led in frozen shock.

Harry stood panting for a long moment of regret. He was too late. At least Belleza seemed to be holding to her promise of only petrifying people, as Justin wasn't looking at anything even remotely reflective, and was looking away from both Nick and the window.

Harry started to walk away, not wanting to find out what would happen if he was caught near the scene whilst in Slytherin, but a strange thought stopped him. Sighing, he made his way over to Justin, grabbing the student-statue around the waist he rotated Justin until he was looking through Nick. He moved away from him just as Peeves came through the ceiling above.

'Why it's Potty Wee Potter! What have you got ther-… Harry?!' Peeves stopped mid-way through a summersault in the air spotting Justin and Nick, and turning to Harry in shock.

'I didn't do it Peeves.' The denial was instant and panicky.

Peeves looked long and hard at Harry, but nodded firmly. 'You've kept me well stocked, Mr. Anonymous Pranker, which is as it should be. You'se be more liking to fun than terror Peevsie thinks. Get under that cloaksie of yours. They don't need to be knowing all of Peevsie's secrets.'

Harry rushed to get his cloak out and follow Peeves' advice in shock. He hadn't expected Peeves to believe his plea, but he supposed he had been supplying Peeves with pranking stock for two years consistently, and even some ideas based on the tricks other students had been trying to bully Harry with. They had a truce of sorts. He had still expected Peeves to want to cause trouble more than help out a supplier, but wasn't going to sit around and bemoan his good luck.

'ATTACK! ATTACK! NO MORTAL NOR GHOST IS SAFE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES ATAAAAACK!'

Peeves voice echoed all down the corridor, and Harry quickly pressed his invisible form further back and against the wall.

Crash - crash - crash.

Door after door flew open along the corridor as students and teachers piled into the corridor. McGonagall was closest, and Harry was all the more thankful Peeves had allowed him to escape. He would have been expelled before anyone could blink if McGonagall had found him. Harry made his way around to the back of the crowd and pulled off his cloak as Peeves distracted the crowd by cackling into a song about everyone in the school "catching the petrified disease". Peeves always did love chaos. As students turned up from other floors drawn by the shocked screaming, Harry made his way around to join up with his fellow Slytherin second years, asking Pansy calmly what was going on, just as if he had really been at the back of the crowd the whole time and couldn't see Justin and Nick.

While everyone else pushed forwards to be able to see Justin and Nick, Harry moved to observe where Belleza had disappeared into the wall. There was a bubbler there, which explained the pipes. Belleza had only mentioned three entrances to the Chamber of Secrets, but now Harry realised she must have thought he meant directly from the chamber, not just out of the pipes. He was pretending to drink from the fountain while looking for any sign of a snake emblem or crack showing where the stones parted when he caught the same flash of red in the corner of his eye. He spun around quickly, but instead of a Weasley, his heart sunk as he noticed the giant portrait of a Scottish Laird with bright red hair in a similar coloured kilt. Looking back he couldn't decide exactly where he'd been standing, and if it could have been the portrait he saw, not Ginny's hair.

He was still equally divided about whether he thought it was Ginny or not. Part of him was sure she was much too happy and outgoing to be under Tom's influence, but another part of him kept remembering how events seemed to be happening the same or similar, no matter what he changed. He stopped trying to decide when he began to get a headache, and just decided to look in to all red heads behaviors just in case. There weren't that many other than the Weasley's anyway.

Dumbledore soon arrived on the scene, and Harry noticed he seemed to be looking for someone. Three guesses whom?

Dumbledore interrogated Peeves, but Peeves remained elusive and teasing, much to Harry's joy. Harry held his breath when Dumbledore asked who was the last person Peeves saw.

'Harry Potter, But I came through four floors just before I be seeing the boy and the dead ghostie!'

It was technically true, but through twisted words Harry not only wasn't blamed, but had essentially been given a witness via assumption.

All the students were sent back to their dormitories, the mystery unsolved. Harry searched the map again once he was in his bed, but after an hour of searching had to admit that Tom wasn't on there anymore. Unable to sleep from worry, Harry collected a roll of parchment and began listing off all the redheads he could think of. There weren't too many outside the Weasleys, and most of those were in the upper years. In fact, the only person below third year was Susan Bones. Harry was still sure that Lucius wouldn't have given the book to an older student. He had originally doubted it would be a Hufflepuff, as Sprout did weekly checkups on all her students, and the puffs were much to loyal and caring not to notice one of their own looking down in the dumps. That being said, Harry thought Susan Bones had potential. He remembered Lucius had given Ginny the diary to try and discredit Arthur Weasley. Susan Bones' aunt was Ameila, the current Head of the Auror office and an iron will against unfair treatment. Also decidedly light. Amelia got on with nearly everyone though, and Harry found it hard to believe that anyone would believe she had anything to do with events even if Susan did end up with the blame. Harry would be disappointed in Lucius if he had done something so stupid.

Harry didn't like Lucius Malfoy, obviously, however he did have a lot of respect for the man. He had been caught red handed, marked by Voldemort and openly admitting to casting several highly illegal curses… and had managed to come out with a large sympathy vote and the ear to the minister of magic. That took skill. Harry didn't agree with his methods, but had to admit they worked. Of course, everything was easier if you were lacking in morals. That didn't mean Harry ever wanted to give his up.

In the end Harry went to sleep frustrated, determined to research and watch Susan, but surer than ever that it was Ginny… even knowing that it was unlikely.

Breakfast the next morning was equally as stressful as the day before, as Harry found a note waiting for him on his plate requesting he visit Dumbledore's office during his free period at 11.

Harry left Apep in his dorms, not wanting to risk taking him into Dumbledore's office. Dumbledore had all sorts of detection devices in there, it being a hobby of his. Harry felt rather odd walking up to the eighth floor without Apep wrapped around his middle. He also felt a lot lighter, as Apep had grown quite a lot over the year, and soon Harry would have to find a charm that wouldn't hurt Apep when left on, or leave him in the dorm.

There was no password given, and while Harry was fairly sure the password had been 'butterscotch' in the original timeline, he wasn't going to play Dumbledore's games, so when he arrived outside the office he just stood at the gargoyle waiting, until after ten minutes, it moved aside and Dumbledore let him in.

Harry was of the opinion that having a password-protected office for the Headmaster was a terrible idea anyway. Students should be able to easily approach the staff, or in the very least there should be an emergency code such as 'I need help from the Headmaster'. He could see why you might not want say, the Weasley twins in there alone, but it would be easy to have office hours, or an alert system.

Dumbledore didn't seem to be put out at all by having to wait, or Harry's maneuvering, however he did look a little stern. He still offered his lemon drops (which just made Harry even more sure they were laced with something) and a smile. Harry purposely kept his eyes from even drifting _towards_ Fawkes. Harry knew it was of Dumbledore's favorite things to show off his phoenix. Harry liked Fawkes, but held him to fault for staying with Dumbledore. Instead he kept his eyes on Dumbledore in a bored manner. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed there were rooster feathers all over the desk.

'Where were you this afternoon Harry?' Dumbledore jumped straight into it, in a move unusual to his normal behavior, putting Harry a little on edge. Harry still replied with his usual; 'It's Mr. Potter.'

'Where were you this afternoon, _Mr_. _Potter_.' Dumbledore managed to sound equal parts frustrated and condescending.

'Assuming you were referring to the time of the attack, I was on the eighth floor.'

'How interesting, as I don't believe any of the portraits can confirm seeing you there.'

'I'm sure they just didn't see me.'

'I'm afraid they have the area covered rather well Mr. Potter, so I will have to ask again, where were-'

'I was under my invisibility cloak.' Harry interrupted.

'Doing a bit of exploring were you?' Dumbledore put on a bright smile. Harry wondered if he believed him, or whether he was just being hopeful.

'I was walking alone and it has become rather dangerous for me to do so, so I preferred no one know I was there.'

'Ah, these attacks are getting rather frequent.' Dumbledore sighed and his shoulders slumped. Harry wasn't buying it.

'Actually it's more that students attack me everywhere I go as you have done your best to make everyone assume that I am the heir of Slytherin.'

There was a slight pause of shock before Dumbledore could collect his thoughts.

'I'm sure it's not that bad, my boy, students will be students.'

'An interesting policy. Was there anything else sir? Only I have an essay due and I was hoping to get to the library.'

'There is nothing you want to tell me? Nothing about the chamber of secrets or the heir?'

Dumbledore looked over his glasses sternly at Harry, and Harry felt an occlumency probe try to skim his surface thoughts. Like usual it didn't work, and Harry could feel Dumbledore's frustration and anger. Harry was quiet impressed with the mask Dumbledore was managing, he looked a little sad, and very disappointed, but none of the raging anger Harry felt was showing through at all. He still had the damnable twinkle in his eye as well.

'You know all about the Chamber sir. I'm not sure what you expect to hear from me?'

'I don't know why you think that I do my bo-… _Mr_. _Potter_.'

Harry only just managed to abort an eye-roll. 'Maybe from the fact that you were teaching when the heir was in the school, and while you had no proof _then_ it is quite simple to figure out who it is _now_.'

'I don't know where you've got your info from Mr. Potter, but I assure you, it is inaccurate.'

Harry contemplated what would happen if he told Dumbledore that his source was a combination of Voldemort, time-travel and a thousand year old Basilisk. It would almost be worth it just to see Dumbledore's face.

'So you are saying Tom Riddle isn't Voldemort? That he didn't open the chamber during his school years, that Myrtle didn't get killed by the monster of the chamber, and that Hagrid was expelled for legitimate reasons?' Harry smiled blandly.

'Where did you find out that information!?'

Harry considered carefully. 'Myrtle.'

Harry chose her as an escape goat because she would probably know it all, and, more importantly, there was very little Dumbledore might be able to do to her. Dumbledore was frowning heavily.

'That's dangerous knowledge, Mr. Potter.'

'Sir?'

'Look at me Harry.'

Harry looked up a little warily, only to find Dumbledore's wand already drawn. His was halfway out by the time Dumbledore spoke, as he really hadn't been expecting it. It was too late.

'Obliviate.'


	13. Chapter 13

**THIRTEEN**

'Hey Harry… what's wrong?' Blaise looked up from the book he was reading as Harry had entered the dorm room frowning.

'I'm not sure… only I was sure I…' Harry trailed off and shook his head.

Blaise sat up and looked Harry over critically. 'You don't look yourself.' He stated. Harry's frown deepened.

'Yeah, it's almost like when… but no, I'm sure he wouldn't…'

'You are making no sense. We have Charms this afternoon, have you done the essay?'

Harry gave Blaise a slightly blank look, but then shook it off.

'Yeah, I got it done the day after we had it.'

'Really? How? There was only one copy of each of the eight Charms texts, and the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs got the same essay. Granger checked all of the books out straight away, as usual thinking she is the only one who needs to study them.'

Blaise sounded rather bitter, and normally Harry would have defended her in a round about way. But firstly, this time Blaise was correct, she should have read them in the Library, and secondly, he was concentrating on his mindscape. There was something odd about it. It had happened a few times like this before, but only when he'd been obliviated, and he couldn't remember that happening (obviously). Fortunately, he would know after the next time he slept. Harry made a non-committal noise, which seemed to placate Blaise, who went on a further rant about knot-it-all's.

The Slytherin's had Charms then Herbology, both with the Ravenclaws. Harry was preoccupied throughout both lessons all afternoon and was glad he had collected Apep again, as he had to squeeze Harry quite a few times when people were trying to get Harry's attention.

.:What is wrong with you today master? You are not yourself:. Apep asked as soon as Harry went back to the dorm.

.:I think I have been obliviated, only, I know Dumbledore didn't do it in the original timeline, and I can't accept that he would do it in this one:.

.:I thought you didn't like the old one?:.

.:I don't, but it just wouldn't have happened. He has always claimed the moral high ground, he wouldn't steal memories:.

.:You sound unsure master:.

.:I just can't think who else it could be. I know someone attempted it:.

.:I guess you won't be able to find out?:.

.:Actually, I still have a few tricks up my sleeve:.

Harry let a smirk cross his face, before he suddenly dropped it.

.:Maybe it was the attacker!:.

.:Why do you sound so excited about that master?:.

.:You'll see:.

Harry got a few odd looks that evening, as he rushed through dinner, then rushed off to bed. It was coming up to the Christmas holidays, and the teachers had been piling the homework on, so most students had to stay up late to study unless they wanted lots of homework at home. Fortunately Harry had finished drafts of all but one essay already, and had nothing planned over the holidays anyway. He apologetically declined a game of seerklo with a sixth year (which was a pity considering it would have been good for Slytherin politics) and headed straight to bed. He was asleep before any of the others even made it back from dinner.

Harry woke at 4.30 in the morning, swearing loudly.

'Bloody hell Potter! It's 4am! Go back to sleep.' Theo yelled, throwing his pillow across the room. Harry tossed it back, but instead of going to sleep, got dressed and pulled out his invisibility cloak and made his way outside to walk off his anger.

Dumbledore had obliviated him! Not only that, but he had tried to take _all_ of his memories of Tom Riddle. Harry associated Voldemort as Tome Riddle, and would probably have been left as little more than a useless lump. He wouldn't have remembered where the horcrux were located, or even why he had returned to the past at all. Harry was furious.

Dumbledore had tried to _steal his memories_! Dumbledore! He was meant to be the good guy.

Harry had been feeling terrible about being so angry with the old man, who really just thought he was doing what was best. But this was _enough_. Harry could understand a lot of things "for the greater good", Hell, he'd let Voldemort AK him the second time because of that very reason, but his memories were _his_. Dumbledore had absolutely _no_ _right_ to take them. Harry picked up a rock and pegged it as far as he could out over the lake. The giant squid threw up a tentacle and caught it just before it hit. Harry huffed in frustration.

Unfortunately for Dumbledore's plans, Harry had never been a normal wizard. At the time that Harry returned from to the past there had been not three, but seven, unforgivables. The ministry had based them all off Harry. Harry had never been game to test it, but the unspeakables were relatively sure that Harry could survive several more Avada Kedavra's, he had never been susceptible to Imperio, and Crucio had been proven off as well. Harry's guess about the whole thing had been that Lily Potter had done something to keep him alive for the first one, and it had effected his magic so much, and at such a young age, that he had ended up immune to a whole section of magic. Now that Lily was actually alive, he didn't know what he believed and he now had no idea how he survived the original spell.

It had been so long since the three unforgivables had been named in court as a one-way ticket to Azkaban (several centuries), and wizard kind had been reluctant to try for any more, as the naming of the original three had seen the rise of two dark lords and a civil war that lasted forty years. With Harry as the public's darling again, Hermione and Draco (who had been sentenced to stay 'within Harry's sights' like Snape had with Dumbledore, when Harry saved him from Azkaban) had managed to work together to push the new laws through. Draco had known the pure-blood reactions and olde laws, and Hermione had always wanted to be a lawyer (magical world or no).

Obliviate had been named the fourth unforgivable. While it did work on Harry, it was only temporary, and when his body slept, his mind automatically repaired the broken chains, and Harry would remember what had been lost when he woke. He was also aware just after the spell that something was off about his mindscape. It was actually Obliviate that got the three of them so far in court. Minister Shacklebolt's undersecretary (and what is it about that job that was so evil!?) had obliviated Harry of information that would have saved some people's lives in court against the dementors kiss. As Harry was the first person to remember the information lost to the spell, he (and Hermione) had come up with a strong case for _stolen_ memories. They had originally been aiming to bring Undersecretary Charles up for theft, but had ended creating the four new unforgivables.

The court case had lasted three years and in the end they had won. A forced bonding spell that left the target in a similar relation to that of a house elf was added when a crazy fan girl had decided she wanted Harry for her own (she had ended up as the bonded instead, and was very, very lucky that Harry was kind enough just to release her).

The _quidem_ _atuus_ curse that slowly stole another wizard's magic would be developed around the time Harry turned twenty-three, in that case unfortunately Harry hadn't been able to return the magic that he was given, as the reversal spell wasn't created yet, and the man who had been trying to steal Harry's magic was left as a squib. Fortunately that spell hadn't been given out to the public, and if Harry had a say in it, wouldn't even be created this time around. When Harry got a chance he had every intention of going to the site in Cornwell (where a Nordic tomb had been discovered in the unlikely location) and blowing the whole thing up. There had been several old tablets discovered, and none of them nice.

A ritual that would give four people control over a fifth person's emotions, which actually did work on Harry was added just before the end of the third year. It worked much better than it was supposed to, and for the two weeks it took for the St Mungos staff to track the four down, Harry had been a complete mess, and had booked himself into the long-time spell ward in desperation. Normally it would just have made him more susceptible, but being Harry, it had taken things to the extreme, and by doing so had allowed for a strong enough court case.

The forth was of course, Obliviate.

During the court battle, several groups (most of whom ended up arrested once investigated) had tried to take advantage of the issue being raised, and argued for the three original unforgivables to have a lesser sentence. It was another reason that the wizengamot had been reluctant to try adding more. Crucio had actually managed to be brought up as a strong case, as it was the one of the three that didn't effect Harry. It was ridiculous, and proven so when Harry in a fit of anger, agreed to be tested, and they discovered he actually felt quite a bit _more_ pain than anyone else. Which, in Harry's opinion, was just typical.

Right at that moment, Harry was feeling angry enough on the same level of when he had demanded to be tortured to prove a point. At least he could be sure that Dumbledore had never obliviated him in the original timeline. But then, he had never had much information to have it taken away. It was clear to Harry that Dumbledore was feeling threatened by his little hero being able to think for itself, and _that_ had Harry spitting mad. He had always been aware, on some level, that he was being led around by the nose by Dumbledore, however the first time through, Harry hadn't really minded because he looked up to Dumbledore and agreed, for the most part, with what he was being led to do. Now, he wasn't so sure on either point.

Dumbledore's death had allowed for several people to speak out about the wizarding world's hero in a much fairer light. Rita Skeeter had started something much bigger when she published her book on him during the war. There were no more big scandals like being Grindelwald's lover, or his sister's possible murderer, however there had been a lot of little complaints. Harry had never spoken to the press, but he had certainly reflected, and found that he wasn't as ok with past events as he had believed. He was also unsure about Tom Riddle. It was, despite his parents betrayal, the _real_ reason he had been considering returning to the past in the first place. He had come to prove a point. He wanted to prove to himself that he would have made the same (or similar) decisions, even with his knowledge in hindsight.

Tom Riddle (not Voldemort) had actually been brilliant, one of the best minds to ever pass through Hogwarts. Harry still hated him, because of Voldemort, and knew he had made some really, _REALLY_, stupid decisions, but the more Harry had learnt about Tom Riddle, the more he could understand why Tom had made those bad choices, and the more Harry suspected that Dumbledore, and a few others, had been involved in helping those bad choices along. It didn't sit right with Harry that there was a possibility that Tom Riddle had been selected as the villain, and he, the hero. But more and more evidence to suggest that had turned up over the years.

Dumbledore obliviating Harry just made him more suspicious, and angry as fuck. Dumbledore obviously didn't trust Harry even slightly. Why was knowing who the heir of Slytherin was even dangerous? And why wasn't Dumbledore using that knowledge anyway? Originally no one would believe Dumbledore that Tom Riddle opened the Chamber of Secrets, but Harry had no doubt that Fudge would now, even _with_ Lucius Malfoy whispering in his ear. Hell, it would be the perfect opportunity to let everyone know Voldemort was a half blood. Sure, Dumbledore didn't want anyone to know about horcruxes, but they didn't have to be mentioned. They just needed to say that someone was obviously emulating Voldemort in opening the chamber. Plus it would have the added advantage of Ginny (or whoever had the diary) becoming aware of exactly who's diary they had. Harry was sure that if it _was_ Ginny, that would have been enough to stop her writing, even if she never handed the diary in. Plus the whole thing would prove Hagrid innocent if played right.

It made Harry mad, even more so, because if Dumbledore was scared enough to obliviate Harry, then what else _didn't_ Harry know? Harry had actually been obliviated twice yesterday. First after he admitted to knowing about Voldemort's past, then Dumbledore had interrogated Harry on why he was a Slytherin, and if he really _didn't_ speak Parseltongue. Fortunately Harry hadn't actually revealed anything anyway. Dumbledore had even brought a snake in a box working under the assumption that like Tom Riddle, and Harry in the original time line, Harry couldn't tell the difference between the two languages, and would be forced to switch. However unlike Tom and himself in the original timeline, He had been through magical maturity, which put a wizard much more in touch with their magic, and also had had two decades to become used to speaking, and knowing _when_ to speak.

His secrets were safe, and Dumbledore had been frustrated. It had proved however, beyond a doubt for Harry, that Dumbledore _knew_ that Harry was a horcrux the whole time. Harry couldn't help but feel that Dumbledore was getting his just deserves by Harry being put in Slytherin, and (albeit due to time-travel) refusing to play the part that was set for him. Dumbledore was not god, and needed to learn that. It did, however, increase Harry's discontent with the treatment of Tom Riddle, and whether that had had an effect on his choices to become Voldemort. It almost made Harry feel bad about obliterating Tom Riddle's school scores. Harry knew he was being petty, but then, Voldemort _had_ pretty much consistently ruined Harry's end of year exams anyway (regardless if he was responsible for his bad choices or not).


	14. Chapter 14

**FOURTEEN**

By the time the Christmas holiday sign-up sheet was going around, Harry had decided to put his anger with Dumbledore on the backburner. It took almost a week, but eventually Harry realised that he was gaining nothing out of being constantly angry, and there wasn't anything he could really do without revealing some of his wildcards. It was definitely a black mark against Dumbledore's name, but Harry didn't want some petty revenge made in haste to ruin bigger plans that would have more devastating effects. Dumbledore would not be getting away scott free, it would have to wait. Besides which Harry acknowledged that if he reacted immediately, then Dumbledore would realise that Harry couldn't be obliviated, and that would cause all sorts of problems. No, it would have to wait, no matter how much Harry's magic burned for revenge.

The castle was building up to a festive season. The sets of armor had been charmed to sing carols, and Harry let slip to Peeves where some mistletoe was growing, so students were being attacked left right and center. Flich had threatened to burn down the entire forbidden forest to get rid of all the mistletoe after Peeves spent an entire day floating around after him showering him in mistletoe petals, and insisting he and Mrs Norris needed to kiss (It probably didn't help matters that Harry spent an hour talking the Bloody-Baron into letting Peeves have his fun for the day, meaning Filch had no backup).

The Weasley twins had somehow decided that Ron was the heir to Slytherin, and Harry had caught them quite a few times frog-marching around an irate Ron. Harry had heard rumors that they had got Percy too. They tried to get Harry once, however their hands were cursed blue after touching Harry for only a second, and Harry promised it would be permanent if they tried it again. He was pretty sure they seriously considered it.

Harry had expected to have a quiet Christmas, the double attack on Justin and Nearly Headless Nick turned what had hitherto been nervousness into real panic. Curiously, it was Nearly Headless Nick's fate that seemed to worry people most. What could possibly do that to a ghost? people asked each other; what terrible power could harm someone who was already dead? There was almost a stampede to book seats on the Hogwarts Express so that students could go home for Christmas, and it was only by pure chance that he found out there would be something going on in advance.

He was walking along the corridor outside Myrtle's bathroom, when he heard Myrtle crying louder than usual. He wouldn't normally investigate, however just in case she'd had a diary thrown through her, Harry went in.

'Hello Myrtle.'

'You're a boy! Boy's aren't allowed in my toilet.'

'I know Myrtle, but we met at Nick's party, and I couldn't help but notice you were more upset than usual, are you okay?' Harry had the horrible feeling he was going to come out of this life with Myrtle having a crush on him again.

Myrtle sniffed, but didn't seem to trust his word. 'You've come to laugh at me haven't you! All you boys come to laugh at stupid, moping, moaning, Myrtle!'

And with a final long wail Myrtle went flying around the room before crashing into one of the toilets with a large splash. Harry was just to give up the whole thing as a lost cause when he noticed that the end door was firmly closed. He snorted loudly, checking the lock with an alohamora, and snorting again when his suspicions were confirmed.

Neville had been going great all year in potions, hardly blowing up anything at all, which had made Harry suspicious when he suddenly went back to the giant explosion that had given them a four-day-detention. Harry felt a bit stupid for not recognizing the signs. Neville had been the distraction for Hermione to sneak into Snape's personal store. They, and Harry could only assume Dean too, were brewing Polyjuice potion. Harry checked the potion, and confirmed that it would be ready just before Christmas.

Harry carefully set everything back the way he found it, then made his way down to the common room with a giant smirk on his face. He would make sure Hermione knew Millicent's was a cat fur, and get her one of Daphne's or Pansy's hairs, but otherwise he considered them fair game. He was sure Daphne could pull it off with ease, so he'd have to let her in on the plot, and he supposed he would have to let Draco know not to mention the secret compartment under his dinning room floor. But other than that, Harry intended to have some fun. He sought out Daphne as soon as he returned to the common room.

'Hey Daphne, could I have a word?'

Daphne raised one eyebrow, but put her books away, and went to take them up to her dorm. Harry followed her away from the group, and asked in a low voice so that only she could hear 'Can you bring Pansy's hairbrush? I promise I'll explain on the way.'

'You had better have a good explanation Potter.' Was all she said, before turning up the stairs.

While Daphne was putting her stuff away, and hopefully getting Pansy's brush, Harry ran up to his room and checked the map. His grin only increased when he saw Hermione, Dean and Neville studying in the library.

'Perfect.'

'What's perfect?' Daphne suddenly popped up looking over Harry's shoulder. 'Wow! What's that?'

Harry smirked. 'Family heirloom. I stole it off the Weasley twins.'

'Sometimes I don't know whether to believe you or not Harry. You stole a Weasley family heirloom?'

'Nope.'

'But you just said-'

'I stole a _Potter_ family heirloom off the Weasley twins. _They_ stole it of Filch, who confiscated of my dad and his friends in their seventh year. They made it. Keep it to yourself will you?'

'Do try to remember you're in Slytherin Harry.'

'What's your price then? How would you like to help pull a massive prank on Granger, Thomas and Longbottom?'

'… I'm listening…'

'Well…'

Daphne was dragged by Harry into the library, complaining in a hushed whisper.

'Potter I don't see why studying right now was so important?!'

'Because I just remembered something, and I'll forget it again. I need to look it up _now_.'

Daphne sighed loudly, then dropped to a desk not far from where the three Gryffindors were staying.

'I was _trying_ to brush my hair before Pansy got back.'

Harry noticed Hermione perk up, and eye the hairbrush Daphne had sat on the desk beside her.

'I don't understand what the issue is? You can brush your hair later, the library closes in twenty minutes.'

'Yes well you wouldn't, Mr. I-don't-ever-brush-my-hair.' Harry glared at her for a moment, before returning to his book. 'Besides,' Daphne continued, 'Millicent accidentally used mine to brush that damn cat of hers. The thing drops hair absolutely everywhere.'

'I prefer owls.' Harry said, hardly looking up.

Daphne sniffed, turning her back on the desk with the brush and her bag and following Harry just out of sight of the table to look at the book he was reading.

'I think I will soon too. She already has cat hair all over her robes, how long do you think until I have the same disaster?'

Harry personally thought the world would turn supernova first, as Daphne was always the image of perfect. 'I think you should tell Milly this, not me. I found the reference, we can go.'

'Why did I even have to come?'

'This is meant to be a _group_ assignment.' Harry complained, as Daphne sniffed again, collecting her things and making her way out of the library. They continued bickering good-naturedly until they hit the next floor.

'Did she take it?'

'The brush had definitely moved.'

'Excellent.'

'Do you seriously think Granger will be stupid enough to play the part of a Slytherin who isn't even in the school?'

'Yes. The trick will be to stop Malfoy from saying anything.'

'Leave that to me. I still can't believe that they have been brewing polyjuice!'

'So are you staying here for Christmas then?'

'I am now.'

Harry laughed. 'What about Astoria? I thought you always spent Christmas with her?'

Daphne was momentarily surprised, but regained her mask before it slipped properly. 'She'll be here next year, and she'll understand the need to prank Gryffindors.'

'She _could_ end up in Gryffindor you know.' Harry pointed out. Daphne stopped walking and looked at Harry alarmed. Harry just rolled his eyes and kept walking.

'Come on, we need to go and see the Professor and let him know you're staying.'

'How did you even find out about this?'

'That's a long story Daphne.'

'I have a while.'

'Luck.'

'That isn't long at all.' Daphne whined.

'Did you seriously just whine?'

'Not a word Potter.'

Harry snorted. 'Who knows, maybe one day I'll tell you it.'

'I can't bargain for it now?'

'You don't even have ten percent of the value.'

'I'll work on it then.'

'Perhaps. You've got Malfoy covered?'

'Yeah. Are you going to use that map of yours to find them for the password?'

'Yep.' Harry popped the 'p'. 'This is going to be fun!'

'You're an odd child Harry Potter.'

'And _you_ are channeling Luna.'

They reached the common room and Harry went in while Daphne turned to the left towards Snape's office.

'Whatever Harry.'

Blaise and Theo had quickly caught on that Harry and Daphne were planning something and didn't want to miss out on the fun, so along with Draco, Crabbe and Goyle, there was quite a group of them staying for Christmas day. In the end, Harry headed back up to the Room of Requirement to look for interesting things for presents, rather than sneak out to Hogsmead. He was already planning to give Luna the psychedelic umbrella he had found, and fixed, from first year, but also had sent away for a blank Diary earlier in the term when an owl-order wouldn't be noticed. He thought he was probably being paranoid about the owl ordering, but suspected he would be lucky to last one more summer without someone realising he wasn't staying at the Dursleys, especially if Sirius escaped, and didn't want Dumbledore alerted that he knew how to owl order if he was likely to be cut off. Harry had every intention of having an invite to the Malfoy's (and Narcissa nee Black) by then anyway, but better safe than sorry.

To the diary for Luna, Harry had attached a note that said _'Luna, this is just in case… you really don't have a diary that writes back, right?! Please tell me if you see one! - Harry'_.

Harry actually managed to find a bludger that was still working for Theo, and a copy of Machiavelli's _The_ _Prince_ for Blaise. He sent out a school owl to order chocolate frogs for Vince and Greg, and just a slightly more expensive box of chocolates for Draco. Daphne was proving difficult, as everything he saw which he thought she might like, he realised that _future_ Daphne would like it, and this Daphne had a way to go. In the end he sought out the box of crystals from the previous year and transfigured a chain to hold a smaller one as a necklace. It turned out much better than he expected.


	15. Chapter 15

**FIFTEEN**

Christmas day came around quickly, and sooner than he felt expected Harry was sitting in the great hall for Christmas Lunch. Harry was glad for the smaller numbers in the school after the train left. He was tired of people skirting around him in the corridors, as though he were about to sprout fangs or spit poison; tired of all the muttering, pointing, and hissing as he passed. It was like the year before all over again. The lack of students also narrowed down Harry's list of possible diary-owners, although it wouldn't rule other people out all together. Harry just couldn't see Tom Riddle encouraging someone to go home where a parent or guardian might notice the diary.

There was only their group of Slytherin's staying, which suited Harry just fine. All of them wore slightly distasteful looks on their faces as Dumbledore invited them to sit at the staff table. The Weasleys and the new Gryffindor trio were already there, as well as a lone sixth year Ravenclaw, her nose lost in a book. Harry couldn't help but notice Hermione eyeing it greedily.

'Merry Christmas, I trust you have all had an excellent day so far.' Said Dumbledore. Harry noticed all the pure blood's cringing. He had found out this morning that it was tradition to celebrate the Yule gifts in the evening as the sun set in the magical world, of course in the privacies of their home it was usually celebrated on the winter solstice too, however Hogwarts followed the dates of Christmas. Harry was surprised; one he actually thought about it, as Yule was a pagan religion, while Christian religion suggested that magic was of the devil. The Dursley's hadn't ever allowed Harry to go to Church, however they had read him several versus about magic and evil. He wondered for the thousandth time why Hogwarts didn't have a wizarding class, as well as muggle studies.

Everyone was rather jovial around the table. The Weasley's were their usual rambunctious selves, Harry noticed that Percy's Prefect badge read Pinhead again, and caught Percy's eye a few times eventually getting him to notice. Percy went bright red, and yelled at the twins, but McGonagall soon had it fixed. A small group of Hufflepuffs arrived shortly after the Slytherin's, and Harry found himself sharing a bon-bon with a shy Susan Bones. She had been hard to coax out of her shell, but eventually admitted that Amelia couldn't get the time off work. They eventually chatted easily, although Susan was a little wary. Sadly, Harry couldn't help but cross her off his list of Heir suspects. She was too much herself, and let slip she was sitting with Abbott when the last attack happened.

Harry found himself twitching internally every time the headmaster spoke, but his external mask never slipped.

A little after the desserts arrived on the table, Harry noticed Hermione, Dean and Neville were looking rather agitated, and so he caught Daphne's eye. She nodded, and sent some unknown signal that had the rest of the Slytherin's except Greg and Vince making their excuses. Draco was eyeing a second bowl of trifle, but Daphne placed a firm hand on his shoulder, and soon they all had left the hall.

'I'll meet you in the common room, shouldn't be too long. I've just got an errand to run, then I'll bring them with the password.'

'I talked Snape into waiting to change it until tomorrow.'

Harry gawked. 'You'll have to tell me how later.'

'What are you offering?' Daphne smirked.

'Later.' Harry rolled his eyes, then split off from the group. He could hear Draco complaining loudly ahead of them to Theo, and caught Theo rolling his eyes at Blaise.

Harry cut though three hidden passageways including the one that led to his entrance to the chamber. He made a mental note to take the Basilisk a gift later. Eventually he found himself outside the Ravenclaw common room. All the Ravenclaws were still at lunch, but he still had to be quick.

Harry walked cautiously up to the statue.

'What passes before the sun, but has no shadow?'

Harry groaned. He hated Riddles of all forms, although he thought he'd heard this one before. His first response was to think of some of the invisible magical creatures, but then decided that that probably wasn't the answer. Then he thought of water, but even it refracted light on the bottom, and it didn't really pass before the sun. He was running his had through his hair when he got it.

'A breeze!'

'Indeed. Though that is not the only answer. Think on it, young Snake.'

Harry frowned as he made his way into the tower, disabling the ward on the girls dorm and leaving Luna's gift on her bed. He had cursed the paper so that if anyone other than Luna tried to open it they would turn bright orange for a week, and the gift would return to where he left it.

Harry glared at the statue on the way out. 'That's going to annoy me until I get it, you know.'

The statue only smirked a little, but said nothing. Rolling his eyes, Harry pulled out the marauder map and located Hermione, Neville and Dean. Harry was pleased to see they were only just emerging from Myrtle's bathroom. Harry hurried their way.

'There you are! I've been looking all over for you two.' Harry called out, as soon as the three Slytherin's were in sight. Harry wondered where Hermione had got Slytherin Robes, but on closer inspection noticed they were just regular material, not the acromantula silk lined ones most of the girls usually wore. She must have just used a colour charm on her own trimming.

'P-Potter!' Vince stuttered. Well that answered which one Longbottom was. Harry smirked.

'What, forgotten the usual nick-name you have for me Vince?'

Vince had no such thing, but Neville didn't know that, and went rather pale. Hermione opened her mouth to say some sort of excuse, but Harry cut her off.

'Pansy. Funny, I thought you went home?'

That left Hermione spluttering again, but Dean came to the rescue. Harry was mildly impressed.

'Mr. Parkinson got called to an emergency wizengamot meeting, and her mother was visiting the Malfoy's. They only sent her back for the day. Shall we head back to the common room?'

'Sure.'

Harry headed off at a brisk pace, which had Hermione struggling to keep up. Pansy was a lot shorter than Harry. Instead of whining at Harry, like Pansy would have, Hermione started jogging, which Pansy never would have condoned. They reached the Dungeons in short order, and Harry stopped just down from where the entrance was.

'Damn it, I never can remember which section of wall it is.' He turned and looked expectantly at Hermione. She spluttered again. Dean rescued them again.

'You know we're just as bad.'

Harry smirked a little, and walked up to the correct one and whispered the password (_pureb lood_ - typical) without a hitch. The three Gryffindor's paused a little before reluctantly following him in. They obviously weren't sure if they'd been caught out.

'Pansy!' Daphne squealed, and pounced on Hermione immediately, rolling off a dozen questions, none of which Hermione could possibly know the answer too. Harry didn't know what was funnier, seeing the three Gryffindor's panic, or seeing the Slytherin boys going into shock from seeing Daphne act completely out of character.

Harry was keeping a harsh eye on the time, and wrapped things up quickly, cutting Hermione's attempts at avoiding the answers (for which Hermione had a _very_ relieved look) and getting them all seated around the fire.

'S-so, do you have any idea who is opening the chamber of Secrets Mal- Draco?'

Harry only just managed not to roll his eyes. Gryffindor and subtle shouldn't be used in the same sentence. Much to Harry's surprise, none of the other Slytherin's suspected anything at all of Vince suddenly having a stutter, or the sudden topic. Although to be fair, who really expects someone under polyjuice in second year, even if they are _way_ out of character. Draco wouldn't miss a chance to brag normally, but Daphne had reined him in earlier.

'Father told me to just keep my head down this year, but then, he _always_ knows what's going on. Of course, it was fifty years ago last time it was opened, so it was before his time, but he knows all about it and promised to tell me next year. He says that it was all kept quiet and it'll look suspicious if I know too much about it. Funny who got the blame, the stupid half-blood.' Draco snorted to himself.

Harry couldn't help but groan. Now Hermione would know about Hagrid as soon as she could make it to the library. Probably Tom Riddle too, although not _who_ he was. Harry had asked Blaise and Theo to keep out of it if he told them what was going on after, but Blaise couldn't hold back a snort from Draco's gloating.

'Finding out who got the blame was easy enough. Your Father only likes to make people _think_ he knows what's going on. And you're even worse. Besides, Vince was clearly asking for opinion.'

Harry was surprised Blaise had looked it up, but was already resigned to Hermione now finding it. He decided to throw in some confusion. 'Draco still thinks it's me Blaise.'

'What!? I do not! You're a half-blood!'

'Three quarters, if we're getting technical.' Harry smirked.

'Are you the Heir?' Hermione pushed in. All three Gryffindor's leaned forward on the edge of their seats. Harry glanced at his watch out of the corner of his eye. They had about sixty seconds left of the polyjuice.

'No Granger. And Neville, I'm a bit hurt you guys had to ask.'

It was like an explosion went off around him. The Slytherin's were all yelling, and the polyjuice wore off to see a very worried looking group of Gryffindors. Dean was the first to make a break for it, and managed to get to the door before any of the others caught a glimpse of who he was. Hermione tried too, Daphne tripped her on her way past. Neville, much to Harry's surprise, didn't run at all. He actually looked rather ashamed.

'H-How l-long did you know?'

'As soon as I saw Pansy.'

That was a lie, but Harry didn't feel too bad about it.

'What are you going to do?' Neville seemed to gain a bit of confidence when Harry acted just as he normally did. Harry opened his mouth to answer, but Draco had finally stopped gaping.

'Take you to professor Snape! How dare you, you stupid blood-traitor! You brought a mudblood into Slyther- Ihck!'

Draco was cut off by a welt jinx aimed at his neck by Harry.

'Seriously Draco, one of these days I'm going to do something really nasty when I hear you breaking that rule again.' Harry spoke just as calmly, Draco probably would have started yelling, but the welt had made his throat swell, and he had tears in his eyes.

'He needs the hospital wing.' Hermione said after the group descended into an awkward silence for a moment. Daphne held her arms firmly behind her back.

'The ponce deserves it.' Theo spoke up.

'Do you have any polyjuice left Granger?'

Harry's question obviously caught the two Gryffindor's off guard.

'Two doses, why?' Hermione's voice only shook a tiny bit.

'I'll trade you the two doses, and the location of Greg and Vince, as well as one favor.'

'Wh- what?' Hermione spluttered. The Slytherin's were giving Harry a calculating look, but none said anything. Harry gave Hermione a pointed look.

'No deal!' Neville spoke up. He was obviously okay dealing with Harry while the other Slytherin's kept quiet. 'We'll give you the location and one dose.'

Harry laughed, 'You'll give me two doses and a favor each, and I won't tell about Boomslang skin or Bicorn horns. You owe me for that Neville.'

'One dose.'

'Two doses, two favors.'

'Two doses, both favors are from me to you, leave Hermione out of it.'

'Deal.' Harry laughed. It would have been nice to get a favor from Hermione, but Neville would probably be less worried about it, and really, he just didn't want to get them in trouble, but couldn't seem weak in front of the Slytherins. Neville and Harry shook hands, and Harry fed his magic into the shake startling Neville, but making it a sure thing. Harry led them out of the common room, and checked the map while he was still facing away from the other Slytherin's.

'Daphne, one of those doses are yours. Vince and Greg are in the broom cupboards opposite the start of the Porticus Olidus Hall on the second floor. I'll take Draco to the Hospital wing.'

'Damn right one dose is mine, but where is my favor?'

'I let you in. You're whining again Greengrass.'

Daphne huffed, and Harry smirked, grabbing Draco by the arm and leading him out of the common room.

Draco had tried to tell Snape about the Gryffindors, but the other Slytherin's had all denied it making Draco look like a fool. Vince and Greg were the only ones who there who would normally back him up, but Daphne had cut a deal in getting them out of the broom cupboards, and much to Draco's shock, they had denied everything too. Harry had been expecting Theo and Blaise to want a cut, but Slytherin had surprised him again. When he finally brought it up they just told him that they had been along for the ride but it was his work, so his cut.

'That's rather noble of you.' Harry said suspiciously.

Theo snorted. 'Firstly, I'm from the Ancient and _Noble_ house of Nott. Being Noble isn't some Gryffindor or Hufflepuff trait. Secondly, you're our friend. Between allies, the gain should be distributed fairly.'

'Isn't it most Ancient?' Harry frowned. 'And that's not how the Deatheaters seemed to run?'

'You really know nothing at all do you?' Blaise asked, but his tone was more surprised than anything else.

'About what?' Harry said.

'There are only seven _most_ Ancient houses, and very few are left with a head. There is Slytherin, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, the Black's, the Peverell's, the Longbottom's and the Malfoy's. No one knows who Slytherin's head is, otherwise this whole Heir thing would be more obvious. Dorien Gryffindor wasn't born a Gryffindor, but inherited the title and name off his wife. They only have two daughters, so the same thing will happen when the old man finally passes on. Ravenclaw's title is held by Samuel Rentworth-Ravenclaw, but he's, appropriately, a scholarly recluse. The Peverell line flows through to the Slytherin line, as well as the Brocklehurst and Potter line, but you should know _that_ at least. Longbottom can't take on the title until his father passes, which was a huge scandal, and if it hadn't been Bellatrix _Black_, she would have been lynched. Sirius Black is in prison too, and the Black line can only go to a male heir. At the moment that is looking to be Draco, although he would loose out if Nymphdora Tonks took back the Black name and had a son, as you can't be heir to more than one Most Ancient line at once. If the Malfoy's had a second son, or Sirius Black named an heir, then they would take it, however no one can see Black's will until he actually dies, and there are rumors about Narcissa.'

Harry's brain was reeling. 'I was a _what_?' He hissed out. Blaise and Theo were obviously confused. Harry refused to elaborate.

'Where did you learn all this?' he demanded of Blaise.

Blaise slouched in on himself. 'Mother made me learn as much as possible about heir rights and paths. I'm actually an heir to nine of the smaller houses on the wizengamot.'

Blaise didn't sound at all pleased about that. Harry could remember that in the original time-line Blaise had been a force to behold in wizarding politics. Harry hadn't ever thought about it before, but it made sense, considering his mother's _occupation_.

'Right. You'll have to give me some lessons on wizarding politics and breeding sometime.'

'There's a book in the Library that covers most of it. But it's in the restricted section. Lessons we can bargain for.'

Harry frowned. A book like that should be available to everyone, unless it had some other nasty stuff. Harry made a mental note to get into the restricted section again.

'What about how the Deatheaters were run?' Harry asked. Theo squirmed a little. His father was a Deatheater after all. So far they had avoided mentioning it. Blaise answered again.

'It _was_ run that way. It just probably didn't look like it to an outsider. There were ranks, so the leader got the credit, but the leader wasn't always obvious. For example Abasi Wilkes was one of the leaders, but he had limited power, and terrible strategy. He worked in the department of mysteries however, and knew enough secrets to make his way to the top.'

Harry frowned some more and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. 'I definitely need to get my hands on some wizarding lore.'

The thought bothered Harry over the rest of the holidays. The week was relatively quite, with the Gryffindor's now avoiding the Slytherins and the Ravenclaws studying and the Hufflepuffs too shy to make a fuss. Even when the school got back it managed to remain relatively quiet. Harry was annoyed to find that because he stayed over the break, the rumor of him being Heir had only increased. Apparently he had wanted to attack while the castle was empty. Of course the fact that there _hadn't been an attack_ over the holidays did nothing to stop the rumors, and madam Pomfrey was finally loosening up enough to joke about Harry getting a permanent bed in the hospital ward because he spent so much time with her. Harry just added healing books to the list of things to study, and asked about doing OWLS in healing.

Mostly it was just glares and sneers however, or small children and Hufflepuffs running away from him. Surprisingly the schools animosity was gaining him support in Slytherin, however that came with the downside that a few of the slower Slytherin's were beginning to believe Harry was the heir too, despite him publically admitting he wasn't. No Slytherin would do that if it were them.

The students didn't bother Harry so much, however the staff's animosity was starting to affect him a little. Snape had gone back to being almost as vicious as when Harry was a Gryffindor, but was assigning detentions not point loss. That was mostly due to the fact that all of the other teachers, bar Flitwick, seemed to have decided Harry was the heir, and he was loosing points left right and centre for things like 'Walking with a swagger', 'Arriving alone to class', 'sending suspicious looks at another student' and his favorite from McGonagall 'Being too Slytherin in his answer'. Harry had snapped at that one, and demanded to know how he could be anything _but_ Slytherin, seeing as how that was his house. McGonagall had not been impressed and Harry had lost ten more points, as well as getting three detentions. Bringing Slytherin down was costing him in Snape's eyes.

The only good thing that happened before the New Year, was that Harry had finally found a way to get access to the restricted section. He felt like a bit of an idiot for not remembering about it before. It had killed some of his pride to go and ask Lockhart for a signature, however just like with Hermione, Lockheart barely looked at what he was signing. Harry contemplated making him sign a magical contract that lost him his ability to cast the obliviate spell, however he put that off for the end of the year as a later consideration. It would automatically go on public record after all. Besides, he was so pleased about getting in to the restricted section he could almost (_almost_) bare the poncy peacock. He had found several interesting books, including the one Blaise had mentioned on the old families, and another which covered magical restrictions, including the trace, muggle repelling wards and taboo's. It was the last Harry was most interested in, as he had never managed to figure out how Voldemort put a Taboo on his name, and it had always bugged Harry.


End file.
